Murcia furniture is recognized all over the world for its intricate details and size. There are several pieces of furniture in Murcia, and each of them is designed from a heritage of Italian, Gothic and even Arab influences. In this article, get to know the classes of furniture in Murcia according to various periods in history.
Moorish inspired furniture shows a lot of Islamic or Arab details. Many of these designs hail from Persia, and date back to the 14th century and even earlier, when Spain was ruled by the Moors. Many of the murcia furniture that was popular in this age were burial chests, treasure chests, bridal chests and even arms and grain chest. The cushion was introduced in this period, but for the Moors, it was considered an honorable seat, because whoever was seated on a cushion was higher than those around him or her. When Christianity became more developed in Spain, cushions were provided for women as a symbol of softness and femininity, and stools and chairs were mens choice of seats.
The seventeenth century saw the perfection of furniture in murcia. Chairs that were manually created had to be flawless and put up for public auctions. It was during this time that the quadrangular-shaped large arm chairs were popularized. These big chairs had leather or embroidered covers for the seats and the back rest.
In the 1800s, the characteristic Spanish escritorios and Varguenos, or cabinets, came into view. These cabinets were made of wood, and the faade had iron furnishings and designs. The columns inside the cabinets had painted and gilded accents. But these cabinets were not only used to store things they usually had a small front where one could write on, like a desk and below it were some drawers to keep papers. Escritorios were painted intricately, had exotic woods for veneers and had ivory and bone plaques for accents.
As time went by, furniture in murcia got more influences from other European countries. From Germany, they got the habit of using large, heavy nails and embossing leather. From Italy, they obtained styles which utilized ivory and tortoise shells to create mosaic-like facades.
Today, Murcia furniture is still easily recognizable with its use of chestnut as wood specie, which is now commonly used along with other materials like pine, cypress or cedar. Furniture in murcia is still very ornamented with leather, tortoise shells, ebony, ivory, and even silver plaques.
