The Folk Origins of Painted furniture

A part of the dowry of a girl to be married often consisted of a set of painted furniture. This was presented to the community during the wedding ritual (to which the religious ceremony is only a part) and transported to the house of the groom in the day of the wedding. The painted furniture played an important role in the establishment of the new home and became part of the family life. The richer the brides family, the richer the set of furniture and its ornamentation. Adornment, painted flowers were more than just simple ornaments, they were often symbols. As an example stands thetree-of -life ornament (as flower-bunch, very frequent on the painted folk furniture), which is symbolically connected to ones life. According to an ancient European custom, the father planted a tree when a child was born. The tree-of -life used to tell a whole story about the owner of the piece of furniture, about forces of nature, the order of things in life and also had the role to protect its owners or the contents of the furniture from evil and attract luck and fertility. Every flower had a symbolical meaning and a magic role of its own. Talking chairs used to brief the guest about the climate in the family. The backs of the chairs simulate a human shape. Their position (face to face or back to back) show weather there is peace or strife in the family. Good peace. Arguing between man and wife. Every member of the family had its own chair. The armchair was the privilege of the eldest male in the family. In some regions wives decorated the furniture made by their husbands (near Brasov, Romania). In other areas there were male artists painting the furniture at house of the girl to be wed. Such craftsmen if well fed and well taken care, used to paint with vivid colors, a lot of red and a refined composition. If they were unsatisfied with the way they were treated while working, they painted furniture hastily, with dull colors. The most important piece of the dowry was the dowry-chest or wedding chest. Even if a family was poor and could not afford a whole set of furniture, the future bride had at least a dowry-chest of her own. Archeological findings show that in some cases the woman was even buried in her dowry chest. Corner cupboards were placed in the sanctuary corner of the room and were used to keep the Bible, the rosary, the medicines and the valuables of the family in it. Some pieces of furniture were very widespread due to the fact that craftsmen took them periodically to fairs. This is the case of the Kronstadter-Truhe (Brasov-chest; brassoi lada) created by the German craftsmen from Brasov (Kronstadt, Brasso). These chests were very widespread in the Balkans. Facts to prove this, are: the Brasov chest in the ethnographic museum from Sophia (Bulgaria); also a painting by a great Romanian painter, Nicolae Grigorescu Girl with Dowry featuring a girl dressed in folk costume with a Brasov-chest.