resenting examples of decorative art objects, this exhibition illustrates what types of interior design landed gentry and wealthy middle class surrounded themselves with. Furniture, silverware, glassware and chinaware, fabric and carpets offer a balanced view of variety of styles, aesthetic tastes and financial status of the objects’ users.
Inlaid, carved and gilded furniture, as well as the one manufactured from local material, presents a full scope of forms and styles of European carpentry. Highlights of the collection include Chinese-style escritoire manufactured in Western Europe in the first half of the 18th century and inlaid Louis XV commode.
Pottery, and starting from the 18th century, chinaware, were significant equipment and decorative elements in every household. Displayed exhibits come from the most renowned European manufactories in Meissen, Berlin, Vienna, Frankenthal, and Sevres as well as Ćmielów, Korzec and Baranówka in Poland.
Goods manufactures by goldsmiths determined a financial and social status. Among such items are classicistic Warsaw silverware objects crafted by Jan Bandau, Józef Różański and Feliks Jan Szwarce, as well as 19th-century articles from ateliers of Karol Filip Malcz, Karol Lilpop, Ludwik Nasta and others.
Art nouveau glass objects crafted by French artists Émile Gallé and René Lalique are examples of the highest artistic mastery presented on the exhibition.