At the Rubí Vallhonrat Ethnographic Museum we can also visit the furniture room; there we will find a wide range of pieces of furnitures that decorated the nobles houses around this area. This is a varied but itemized collection that represents the first Catalan furnishing.
A good example among the set of pieces is the bride’s box (jewellery armoire / box), a multi functional furniture, whose main function was to keep the trousseau of all the house’s girls. There were as many boxes as pubilles (heiresses). There are also walnut sideboards and chests with very accurate ornamental details.
There are lots of books. The most important one would be a 1875 edition of Don Quixote.
The chairs collection is complete and varied. Several styles and eras are represented; Elizabethan and Alphonsine style chairs, Ferdinand VII style friar's chairs, Antoni Gaudí’s school chairs, Renaissance, neoclassical and Arabic style chairs and so on. All of them reflect the style and taste of a certain period and a certain cultural and social context. They also show a wide range of styles and trends throughout time.
Walking along the room we reach the Moroccan style furniture. At the back of the room there is a spectacular chest-box-sideboard where crafted details can be observed.
This area is also composed of tables, chairs, low padded seats and different objects from the Muslim culture. There are also other objects that represented historic moments in people’s memory: i.e. a Borrell’s painting representing a Francesc Cambó speech or royal documents signed by Philip IV, Philip V, Ferdinand VII, Elizabeth II and the ruling queen Maria Christina. The Catalan culture world is also represented by an Enric Borràs’ picture, who performed Manelic’s character at the Àngel Guimerà’s Terra Baixa.
Finally, we can find many curious objects which may interest the youngest ones as we do not have them at home any more; through the eldests knowledge we will learn many stories and interesting facts that we did not know. Let’s take the most of it!
