Furniture art

A large part of the MAKK collection comprises European furniture art from the Middle Ages to Art Deco.

Since antiquity, movable furniture and furnishings have played an important artistic and social role over and above their purely practical use. Form, function and technology in conjunction with the design and materials used provide information about the specific living conditions, social status and self-image of the owners. Later repairs and alterations also illustrate the high esteem in which a piece of furniture was held.

Whether chair, armchair, bench, sofa, chest, box or cabinet, the MAKK collection unites furniture of outstanding artistic and technical design. Sumptuously inlaid scissor chairs and iron-bound and carved chests are representative of medieval living culture, while tables and cabinets richly decorated with figures or sumptuously furnished cabinets illustrate the furniture art of the Renaissance. 

One outstanding complex is a collection of representative cabinet cabinets from the 16th and 17th centuries, which were used to store precious Kunstkammer objects, as well as a collection of small pieces of furniture, primarily chests, drawers, caskets and boxes dating from the 11th to the 19th century. They were used to safely store important and valuable items such as contracts, documents, precious objects, coins or jewelry and are particularly elaborately designed and made of precious materials in keeping with their status.

Baroque and Classicist furniture is represented by prestigious writing furniture, chests of drawers, console tables and clocks by French cabinetmakers. Other highlights of the collection include magnificent market furniture from the workshops of Abraham and David Roentgen and furniture designs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

Examples from the Pallenberg manufactory in Cologne, as well as designs from England and Spain, such as the so-called Moorish Room, represent the furniture art of historicism. European Art Nouveau manifests itself in furniture and room furnishings by Henry van de Velde, Louis Majorelle, Emile Gallé, Josef Hofmann, Hans Christiansen and Peter Behrens. French Art Deco is documented by the designs of Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann.