Townhouse – a view from the inside – Part Two

In the previous article, dedicated to the furnishing of an old house in Burgas, we looked at how the living room or reception room was furnished - the most important room in any self-respecting house. Today we continue with the other rooms. It is the turn of the dining room, and as for the salon, we will keep some of the old words used by Eng. Georgi x. Petrov, when he wrote down his memories. The furniture of the room consisted of several chairs, a sofa or couch, a dining table, which in certain cases had to be able to be opened and made larger, a hanging lamp or small chandelier, a mirror, a clock and a sideboard with partitions inside to keep the expensive dishes. For a decorated dining room, it was unthinkable not to have beautiful flowers in flower beds (flower beds), paintings, as well as the occasional cage with songbirds, such as canaries (canaries), for example. When there was no separate room in the house for the cupboards in which the various dishes and necessities for the dining room, things for eating and drinking were kept, these cupboards were kept in the dining room. In winter, the trashesaria was heated by means of a stove, purposely fitted with a place for heating (reheating) the dishes.
The next room we'll take a look at is the activity room. The furniture in this room was as follows - a sofa, a sofa with several chairs, a library, one or two desks with their accessories and candlesticks, one or two shelves and a clock. The decorations consisted of various paintings with historical and educational subjects, albums, collections, statuettes and some scientific rarities. Prepared animal skins were laid on the floor instead of rugs.The other room to which we open the door is the study, where the main furniture was a couch with several chairs, a table, a desk-chest, a mirror, one or two paintings and a clock.
Of course, the house cannot have a bedroom, and the furniture of a bedroom consisted of one or two beds; one table; one commode (bedside table) for each bed; one or two cupboards with or without a mirror, for storing night clothes; one chest of drawers; one or two hangers with curtains over them to protect clothes from dust; a wash basin with his needs - with a cover (lid) on top and a compartment for keeping toilet things. In the bedroom there were another one or two consoles with foil mirrors and two candlesticks each; one sofa or wide couch, accompanied by two large armchairs for resting and two or three chairs. On the walls hung paintings or portraits of one of the family members and a wall clock that didn't beat loudly. If the bed was next to the wall, an engraving (carpet) or guber stretched on the wall itself was placed on it. On the floor in front of the bed was spread some well-made animal skin or a rug for stepping on. And animal skins were spread in front of the sofas and chairs.
Judging by the number of rooms already examined, this house was probably large for a merchant as well, because they also had a servant's bedroom. In this room, the furniture was sparse, but of the most necessary - a bed, two chairs, a table, a lamp and a wash basin with his needs.
But in a decent house, there has always been a need for a special room in which to keep the cupboards for keeping clothes, namely the wardrobe.In this room there was a simple and large enough table of smoothed and well-washed boards to serve for ironing (yutledisvane).
Did you like the walk around a house in Burgas? We hope the answer is Yes. And how beautiful she was from the outside... she probably had a garden with flowers...

*photos are illustrative
Plamena Kirova
Ch. curator, department "Ethnography"