In the Art Nouveau Dining Room and Study
The Masovian Museum in Płock invites you to its Art Nouveau tenement house. The interiors give the impression of being inhabited. The owners just went for a walk in the park...
Dresser/Server cabinet (19/20th Century) by UnknownMasovian Museum in Płock
Painted landscapes on furniture
Art Nouveau aesthetes could not imagine a living room without a cabinet, light furniture with a collection of porcelain or silverware and family souvenirs. The server from 1900, presented in one of the museum's salons, delights with its landscape inlay.
Secrets of inlay
Marquetry is one of the decorative techniques consisting in arranging patterns of many types of wood with a different color and grain pattern on the surfaces of the equipment. The pieces of the cladding were often composed into paintings.
Dinner service (20th Century) by Design: Theodor Schmuz-Baudiss, label: Königliche Porzellan-Manufatur BerlinMasovian Museum in Płock
The heart of the house
The dining room was the most important room of the Art Nouveau house. The main character of the table was the dinner service, like Ceres from 1913, designed by Theodor Schmuz-Baudiss, created for the 50th anniversary of the Royal Porcelain Factory in Berlin.
Guinea fowl and zander
A wealthy Polish family from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries ate broths, borscht, cold soups, venison, beef, lamb and poultry. The delicacies were guinea fowl and zander.
A four-flame chandelier in the form of a bunch of calla flowers (19th Century) by Design: Carl HeckertMasovian Museum in Płock
More light
With the spread of electric lighting at the end of the 19th century, chandeliers with lampshades in the shape of calla flowers and water lilies entered Art Nouveau salons. In the photo - a German project, created after 1862.
Box turntable (19/20th Century) by Label: KlingsorMasovian Museum in Płock
Let the music play
Turntables were most often used in living rooms, rooms for receiving guests and making music. The most popular type of turntable was the tube turntable, here we present a newer and rarer box type from 1900, from the German Klingsor label.
Linen wardrobe (19/20th Century) by UnknownMasovian Museum in Płock
Something for the ladies
The Art Nouveau interior could not be complete without a boudoir, i.e. a French one - a room for pleasure. It was here that the lady of the house welcomed her closest relatives. In the boudoir, all the furnishings exuded femininity - like that lingerie cabinet from 1900.
Music stand (19/20th Century) by Label:Thonet BrothersMasovian Museum in Płock
Concert for four candles
Art Nouveau salons resounded with thousands of melodies performed on a flute or a violin. An indispensable element of this kind of music-making was, for example, a richly inlaid music stand with four candle holders from the Viennese Thonet Brothers' factory from around 1900.
Armchair (1925) by Design: Giacomo ComettiMasovian Museum in Płock
Reading comfort
The Italian armchair from the beginning of the 20th century, designed by Giacomo Cometti, is an ornament of the Art Nouveau library of the Mazovian Museum in Płock. Libraries in belle epoque houses were usually combined with the master's offices.
Lamp with a stained glass shade (19/20th Century) by Design: Józef MehofferMasovian Museum in Płock
A lamp like a stained glass window
The library is also decorated with a standing lamp designed by Józef Mehoffer, dating from around 1900. The lampshade bowl decorated with colored glass fragments stained in the mass testifies to the craftsmanship of the creator of the stained glass in Friborg, Opava, Lviv.
Stained glass windows are making a career
During the belle époque, the stained glass technique was extremely popular. Artists used it because of its decorativeness and associations with the favorite Gothic at that time. Józef Mehoffer was an outstanding stained glass artist.
Dinner service (20th Century) by Design: Henry van de Velde, label: Königliche Porzellan - Manufaktur MeissenMasovian Museum in Płock
A porcelain treasure
This is one of the most beautiful dinner sets presented in Płock - Meissen tableware with a wave motif by Henry van de Velde, Belgian, creator of Art Nouveau. He designed the building of the School of Decorative Arts in Weimar, the nucleus of the famous Bauhaus.
A set of tables (19/20th Century) by Design: Émile GalléMasovian Museum in Płock
Coffee table into coffee table
The Art Nouveau bedroom - the most intimate part of the apartment, had to be not only beautiful but also functional. That is why a folding set of inlaid tables from the manufacture of Émile Gallé, the famous glass designer, but also - as you can see - furniture, fits perfectly.
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