Begovácz Rózsa – Burján István – Vándor Andrea: Folk Art in Baranya County (Pécs, 2008)

Interieurs, Furniture

rests, disappeared from traditional furniture by the fifties, as the work of hemp-processing decreased. As its different names show (thinkingchair, delivery-chair, throne, distaff-chair - the right side of the seat was pierced through for fixing the distaff) it was a valued piece of furniture among peasants. The most beautiful Chair/R.n. 52.997.1 / h.

84 cms / w. 44cms / Sellye pieces of rustic furniture are backed chairs, made of hardwood as individual pieces. We can find similar ones in Central Europe, but they are characteristic mostly in South Transdanubia. They served rather as ornaments, places for honoured persons, not for common use. Backed chairs are projections of the upper-class furniture of great historical styles, like baroque. We know a number of variations from the simple pieces ornamented with outlines only to those crowded with Baroque spirals. After the transformation of interieurs the chair turned into a real useful everyday object, the individual, heavy, carved backed chair made of hardwood was replaced by lathed pieces with weaved seats by uniformed manufactures. Several chair-makers worked in Ófalu. The role of the benches is significant particularly in the 'clean room' (tisztaszoba, the room of representation) it is more important than that of the chairs, usually two of them were standing pushed into the corner, more seldom on the vertical axis of the room under the window or windows. Most cornerbenches have backs. The solid arms imitate the Baroque offcuts of pews. The so-called rengő was improved from the armed type. On the two ends of the seat perpendicular shafts were fastened, to which the arms joined in the back are attached with a hinged construction. They were placed in front of the 19