Masterpieces of Furniture Design

The court on the move

In 1747 Maria Theresa appointed the first Inspector of Court Chattels, who was responsible for the inventorying, maintenance and transport of the holdings of imperial furnishings. He was also in charge of the logistics for the annual hunting excursions and sojourns of the Viennese court at their various summer residences. Highlights of this part of the collection are the travelling thrones.

The Legacy

This room is dedicated to the former Court Furnishings Depot in which the Furniture Museum is housed. On display here is the whole gamut of imperial furnishings, ranging from chandeliers and mirrors to clocks and spittoons. Highlights include the furniture used at the signing of the Austrian State Treaty in 1955.

Habsburg Room

This room presents furniture associated with certain members of the Habsburg family, ranging from Maria Theresa and her era and Emperor Franz II (I) to Emperor Franz Joseph I and his family. A particularly splendid piece on display here is the cradle of Crown Prince Rudolf.

Laxenburg Room

The room is dedicated to the Franzensburg at Laxenburg, a neo-Gothic folly that Emperor Franz II (I) had furnished with antiques like a furniture museum around 1800. Other passionate collectors in the family were Maximilian of Mexico and heir presumptive Franz Ferdinand, whose furniture from Miramare and the Belvedere is on display here.

Prince Eugene Room

Prince Eugene of Savoy was not only a successful military commander but also commissioned major works of architecture and was an art collector of the first rank. After his death the Viennese court acquired his winter palace on Himmelpfortgasse, the Belvedere palace, and Schloss Hof in the Marchfeld with parts of their magnificent furnishings.

Maria Theresa Room

This room is dedicated to Maria Theresa and shows the change in style from the Rococo to the neo-Classicism of the Louis Seize era. The monarch commissioned many major construction projects and had a penchant for furnishing her apartments with East Asian lacquer work.

Emperor Franz Room

Dedicated to Emperor Franz II (I) and his family, this room shows ensembles in Empire and Biedermeier style. Of particular interest are his study and bedroom from the Vienna Hofburg and the Biedermeier furniture of Archduchess Sophie from Laxenburg.

Emperor Franz Joseph Room

This room is dedicated to Emperor Franz Joseph I and his family. On display here are items of furniture used by Empress Elisabeth and Crown Prince Rudolf as well as furnishings from the apartments and residences of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, heir presumptive Franz Ferdinand, and Emperor Karl.

Empire and Biedermeier

Furniture from the Empire and Biedermeier eras constitutes a focus of the collection. Viennese cabinet-making from the first half of the nineteenth century was characterized by its high level of craftsmanship. Highlights from this section include the imaginatively designed chaises-longues and canapés.

Historicism and a Gentleman's Study

The eras of Historicism and the early Modern movement around 1900 are represented in three complete interiors. On display are a dining room in neo-Renaissance style, a hunting room with furniture made of antlers, and as a special highlight the gentleman’s study from the apartment designed for Georg Roy by Adolf Loos.

Special Exhibition

Workshop

The Workshop Room is dedicated to the trades involved in furniture production: cabinet-making, upholstery, gilding and metalworking. The restoration workshops of the Bundesmobilienverwaltung, the federal government department that is the successor institution to the Court Furnishings Depot, were involved in the design of this room.

Biedermeier Alcoves

The Biedermeier alcoves were set up in the 1920s, when display rooms were opened at the former Imperial-Royal Court Furnishings Depot. The Biedermeier furnishings from the imperial household were here arranged to represent model middle-class interiors.

Dining Room

This corner room contains three complete dining room suites that demonstrate the change in style from the Vienna Modern movement around 1900 to the interwar period. The furniture was designed by the Austrian architects Carl Witzmann, Otto Prutscher and Felix Augenfeld.

Kitchens

The next room is dedicated to kitchen furniture, starting with a work bench with pots and pans from the Court Kitchens. Further highlights include an ERDÖ kitchen cabinet from the interwar period and the so-called Vienna fitted kitchen from the 1956 Soziale Wohnkultur programme.

Sanitary Furniture

For centuries, bodily hygiene was practised with the aid of special furniture. Preserved at the Furniture Museum are numerous toilet tables, dressing tables and dressing mirrors, plus bidets and ‘commodes’ (mobile toilets). The sanitary porcelain comes from the Silver Collection.

Walk-in Depot

This section preserves the historical state of the former Imperial-Royal Furnishings Depot. The items of furniture were piled up on top of each other on two levels. The two levels are divided by a timber structure.

Chair Depot

Displayed in the chair depot is a large variety of seating furniture ranging from stools and chairs to armchairs and rocking chairs. Alongside traditional wooden chairs and upholstered armchairs are seats made of metal, bentwood and cane.

Bentwood Furniture

Michael Thonet was one of the pioneers of modern design. A master cabinet-maker, he left his home town of Boppard am Rhein in Germany and settled in Vienna, where he patented his bentwood process. At first he used the bentwood process to make chairs, later producing tables, rocking chairs and children’s furniture.

The Vienna Modern movement

The furniture design of the Viennese Modern movement around 1900 is one of the highlights of the collection. On display are designs by Otto Wagner for the Postal Savings Bank, furniture by Josef Hoffmann for the State Printing Works made at the Wiener Werkstätte, and the very first dining room suite by Adolf Loos.

The interwar period

During the interwar period, a particular style of furnishing evolved with the Neues Wiener Wohnen movement. This section centres on the furniture designed by Josef Frank and made by Haus & Garten, and the apartment designed for Lucie Rie by Ernst Plischke.

The Postwar Period

The main exhibits featured in the section devoted to Austrian furniture design from the postwar era are the Arabia espresso café furniture by Oswald Haerdtl, the Stadthalle chair by Roland Rainer, combinations with metalwork by Carl Auböck, and lightweight chairs by Anna-Lülja Praun. New impulses came from Walter Pichler and Hans Hollein.

The expanding collection

The tour concludes with a new design platform devoted to Austrian furniture design after 2000. Architects made way for designers, with teamwork gaining in importance. Teams featured here include EOOS, POLKA and Walking Chair.

Armorial Hall

The so-called Armorial Hall was once part of the villa designed in 1883 by the architect Eugen Sehnal for the German-Austrian author and critic Hugo Wittmann. The library was redecorated with arms of the Danube Monarchy at the behest of Anton Nagler, a representative in the Landtag, who had purchased the villa in 1905.

Egyptian Cabinet

The Egyptian Cabinet comes from the apartments in the Leopoldine Wing of the Vienna Hofburg furnished in 1810/12 for Maria Ludovica, the third wife of Emperor Franz II (I). The rooms were designed in various different styles.

Special Exhibition