Parade Schlafzimmer - the state bedroom. Upholstery elements in the furnishings of state bedrooms of castle and palace interiors at the end of the 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract

The study focuses on the phenomenon of "state" bedrooms in castle interiors and their most important components in terms of furniture and upholstery work -the state beds. It provides an overview of the historical development of these artifacts in the European environment and the development of forms of upholstery details for individual types. Based on research into the historical inventories of Czech and Moravian castles, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, and on preserved iconography, the article compares luxury state beds in the furnishings of Czech and Moravian castles with those in the European environment. An analysis of the sources refutes previously published considerations that were based on the notion that in the Central European area of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria, fully upholstered state beds based on French fashion from the end of the 17th to the first half of the 18th century were scantly preserved and are rare for later periods. This was supposed to be proven by the idea that such patterns were not assumed much here. Written sources, on the other hand, show that in the interiors of palaces and castles, the bedrooms of leading families were indeed furnished with these artefacts in their ultimate luxurious form of types lit á la française, lit à la duchesse, and others adorned with silk velvet, brooched fabric, gold and silver cloth, and passementerie -trimmings, and not only at the beginning of the 18th century. The study maps the most important preserved components of state and other canopy beds in the administration of the castles and chateaux of the National Heritage Institute and suggests ways to rehabilitate them.