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The bed - speaking object

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The "speaking object" in the former bedroom is most likely a day bed. Such hybrid forms served as a comfortable place to sit during the day and could be converted into a sleeping place at night. Usually, such furniture was crowned by a canopy. The exhibit shows a beautiful interplay of filigree form and the use of delicate ivory colour. A gallery with slender balusters of lotus buds forms the upper end of the bed. In the centre of it you can see a relief with four putti dancing around a vessel.

The front stelas are designed as Egyptian hermai. Hermai are sculptures consisting of a pillar that incorporates a torso or a head. As the name suggests, they were originally dedicated to the Greek god Hermes. In neo-classicism, they were often used as decoration for furniture because of their simple form, mostly in the form of metal applications - so-called fittings. One might think that the heads are metalwork too, but they were in fact carved from wood and then painted.

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