Building 2

The residential building at the corner of Kuninkaankatu and Kirkkokatu reflects the architectural ideals of the first half of the 19th century. It is a wooden square building built in 1849, and it is at its original site. The house has horizontal weatherboarding, in the spirit of classicism. The roof of the main wing is a hipped roof, which is typical for an empire style house.

The street facade of the building is outlined by a fronton, a triangular, gable-like structure, placed in the middle of the upper part of the roof. In the middle of the fronton there is a semi-circular window. Underneath the fronton there is a risalite, enlivening the wall surface. The risalite is a structural element of the building, which is of the building’s height, and projects from the middle or from either end of the building. The pilasters project from the building’s wall as narrow vertical surfaces and their cross-sections are rectangular. The structural elements of the pilasters are a base, a shaft and a capital.

The floor plan of the building has originally probably been core-walled: the house used to be divided into two parts by a wall in longitudinal direction. These two parts were then divided into smaller spaces with walls of crosswise direction.

The exterior surfaces of the Empire style buildings were usually painted with ochre colour but this particular building was originally painted with the colours of grey and green. The six-paned windows have no covering boards. The interiors and the exterior were restored into the appearance of the latter half of the 19th century. Some decorative ornaments were painted on the walls of the study, dining room and Gustavian room by a stencil, according to the original models, which were uncovered from the walls.

Room 228/Drawing room

Drawing room was a hall for the formal occasions in the homes of the gentry and it was furnished in accordance with its value. It was used to receive guests and to converse with them. The drawing room was dominated by a set of furniture, which usually consisted of a sofa, a pair of armchairs, small chairs, a table and a mirror. Many big plants, such as palms, and paintings with gilded frames, photographs, wall reliefs and many other ornaments created a luxurious atmosphere to the surroundings.

The set of sofa and armchairs belonged to a famous family of manufacturers and merchants, the Ranins, from Kuopio. The furniture set represents the Biedermeier style, which prevailed in 1820–1850. This style is also known as Late Empirism. The style got its name from German publications parodying petty bourgeois. Mister Biedermann and Mister Bummelmeier were the heroes of this publication. This style brought – for the first time – the concept of furniture sets to wealthy homes. The Biedermeier style had and has two main trends: St. Petersburg-French and German-English. Both of them were relatively common in Finland. The German Biedermeier was more modest than the Russian Biedermeier, peculiar to which was a ponderous solemnity.

The furniture set in the drawing room represents the St. Petersburg-French branch of this style. The graceful statuesque-decorated cross-piece, typical to German Biedermeier, is missing from the backs of the chairs. Biedermeier furniture was usually made of mahogany and decorated with woodcuts. In Finland, the Biedermeier furniture was also made of light, curly birch. The most recognisable feature of the Biedermeier style are the paw-like legs. The table is supported with one leg, which branches from below and ends up into paws. The popularity of the chests of drawers continued. They were smaller and more composed than those of the Empire style.

On the coffee table of the drawing room, there is a three-layered fruit bowl.

Skilfully made curtain arrangements characterized the interior decoration. The curtains were often made of two fabrics of different colours and materials. The curtains were folded with different sorts of curtain rings – golden bows, arrows, spears or rosettes. The curtains were also used in doorways.

The oil painting behind the sofa is of Russian emperor, Alexander II (Finland was a part of the Russian empire from 1809 until its independence in 1917). On both sides of the painting, there are gilded Empire style, lyre shaped sconces made of wood.

The square piano in the drawing room was made in Kuopio by Otto Emmanuel Rothman in 1851–59. The piano used to be at the mansion of the von Wrights’ (a famous family of artists) in Haminalahti, near Kuopio. On top of the piano, there is a decorative cornucopia (a horn of plenty) and an oil lamp.

Room 221/Kitchen

Fired, clayed household utensils have been made in Finland for the last 6000 years. Metal dishes as household kitchenware were probably rather rare until the Middle Ages. According to the silver taxbooks of 1571, the copper, brass and tin articles were already relatively common. Clay dishes were used together with metal dishes. In addition to metal and clay, household utensils were also made of wood. Household articles of this kind were used until the 19th century, particularly in the countryside.

For a long time, food had been prepared on the kitchen ranges in- and outdoors. After the invention of smoke-stoves and ovens that let the smoke out by grates, it became possible to heat and cook at one place. Nevertheless, separate kitchen buildings were still common in the 18th century, even among gentry. Separate kitchens were quite common because fire was used in cooking, and this represented a risk in towns dominated by wooden buildings.

In the 18th century, kitchens started to be placed in main buildings in wealthier homes. In upper class family houses of Kuopio, kitchens were usually located near an entrance that faced the back yard, in the beginning of the 19th century. In more modest conditions food had to be prepared inside the dwelling room. Due to the lack of housing facilities, and great differences in wealth, many families in towns had to prepare their meals on stoves of the heating oven or on a trivet.

The kitchen is from the turn of the 20th century.

In front of the window, there is a cupboard table serving as a work desk. On the table, there is a fly-bottle. They were already used in the 18th century. In the 19th century, fly-bottles were manufactured industrially. Sweet liquid was put in the bottle, which lured flies through the hole at the bottom. They could not find their way out anymore.

The kitchens of the wealthy civil servants and merchants were comprehensively equipped.

Kitchen utensils and cookware were usually kept on display in the 18th and 19th centuries. Iron and ore pots, copper kettles and copper casseroles with iron stems were used as cooking utensils and they were kept on open shelves circulating the walls. Sometimes there was a crocheted or paper-cut lace edging the shelves.

On the window wall, hanging on nails over the background paper, there are different sorts of utensils needed in household tasks.

The actual cupboard was often placed in the drawing room. Porcelain- and glassware started to become more common around the middle of the 19th century.

There were several kinds of frying pans. They were usually made of cast iron but copper pans were also used. On the stove, there is an iron-cast donut pan and a pancake pan. The lids of the kettles and saucepans were on the edge of the stove’s hood. A poker and a stove hook were also a part of the kitchen range utensils.

On the side of the stove, there is an iron, which has a horn. The horn was used to insert glowing coal into the iron. Irons made of iron and brass were a part of the kitchenware in the houses of the gentry at the end of the 18th century.

On the floor, next to the stove, there is a large copper container for household water. Water was ladled with a coppery water scoop.

A coffee roaster (called ”rännäli”) was also a part of the basic kitchen equipment. The gentry in Finland had coppery coffeepots and coffee grinders in the 18th century but in the countryside they did not appear until the 19th century.

Tinplated trays and tea trays were considered as necessities in the upper class homes already in the 18th century. Tray holders became more common at the turn of the 20th century.

Room 223/Workroom

In the Romantic era of the 19th century, the decoration styles of the bygone days were admired. Characteristics of different styles were modified and combined. Entire rooms used to be decorated with unitary styles.

In towns the order of rooms in the 19th century middle class homes was usually as follows: the core wall of the building divided the rooms in such a way that on the side of the yard were the smaller rooms, such as kitchen, porch and chamber premises, whereas the dining hall and the drawing room were placed on the side of the street. The apartment usually consisted of the master’s study and the room of the lady of the house, the bedroom chamber, the nursery and the servant’s room, in addition to the kitchen, drawing room and the dining hall. There could also be some guest rooms and a library in the house.

The interior decoration of the study with its writing desk, armchair and clock represents neo-Renaissance, a revivalist style, which came into fashion mainly in Germany in the 1850’s. In Scandinavia the golden age of this style were the 1880’s and the 1890’s. The style favoured all that was big, grand, heavy and impressive. The furniture was richly decorated with profiles and lathings, with grooved ball-motifs and architectonic gables. The fashionable material for the furniture was oak, either stained or in natural colour. Neo-Renaissance was favoured particularly in the furniture of dining rooms but the style could also be seen in other rooms.

Characteristic details in a civil servant’s home were plaster and marble statues and several oil paintings on the walls, often of great value. Marble, porcelain and plaster statues became more common at the end of the 19th century. However, they spread mainly into the drawing rooms of civil servants. Plaster busts of the national contributors were acquired to many homes. In this study, on the top of the bookshelf, there is a plaster bust of Zacharias Topelius. He was an author, a poet, a historian and a journalist who lived in the 19th century.

In the early 18th century, only educated persons had books in their homes. Later on, in the middle of the 18th century, also craftsmen and other citizens with no education started to purchase literature. In the 19th century, the amount of books in households increased. Books were most common among civil servants and less so among the people of humble means. The less wealthy people had literature mainly of the religious sort. Only civil servants and merchants possessed pieces of furniture especially for storing books; for example, bookcases and bookshelves appeared in many studies.

On the bottom shelf there is a set of the writing desk’s objects on display: an inkwell holder, a pentrough, a paperknife, an ink dryer, metallic statuette, two candlesticks and a pair of candle scissors e.g. ”snufflers”.

In the corner of the study, there is a pipe rack with a stand and with its long-stemmed pipes. The habit of smoking tobacco spread in Finland in the early 17th century. The pipes were kept on the wall, in a three-edged, notched shelf, which often had a drawer. In the early 19th century, the hose-stemmed pipes that required higher corner shelves became fashionable.

Room 224/Bedroom

The history of bedrooms is closely tied to the history of beds. There was no movable furniture until the 16th century. In Duke John’s Court, in Turku, German cabinetmakers were also making beds, in addition to other pieces of furniture. The common folk slept in beds that were fixed along the walls, on the bedframes built in between the stove and the end wall, or on straw beds on the floor. To cushion the head, there might have been a wooden headrest.

In the 17th century, movable beds started to appear also in peasant homes. Post-beds were the most common bed-type all over the country up to the 19th century. It was a one-legged, fixed bed, built in the corner of the room. Bunkbeds became common during the 18th century, particularly in the western coastal area. The Finnish pull-out bed was based on the Swedish “Gustavian” beds, which often had a small canopy and curtains. This type of bed is spreadable with a half that is standing on its own two pairs of legs and can be pulled out from the side when needed. Besides this pull-out sofa, an Imperial bed, which was to be pulled out from the end instead of the side, was the most common bed-type in Finnish homes until the early 20th century. In the 20th century, the iron bed became popular partly because of its springy bottom with a metal lattice.

A separate bedroom is a novelty from the mid-19th century. The Empire style of the early 19th century created the consisted sets of furniture and a furniture for bedrooms. In Finnish peasant houses separate bedrooms started to appear at the end of the 19th century, first for the master and the mistress and then later for the sons and daughters of the house. Up to the 19th century, bedrooms indeed were used as venues for formal occasions and as everyday living rooms. They often had sets of chairs, a sewing table or a writing desk, in addition to the bed.

The bed in the bedroom is an Imperial bed, which is pulled out from the end. This kind of bed was put together for daytime. The bedclothes were piled on the top of the bed.

This bed is made ready for the night. When the beds started to become more common in the 18th century, new kind of bed clothing appeared. While the mattresses and the pillows of the gentry were filled with horsehair, downs or wool, was the mattress of the common folk usually a bed-size, straw- or hay-filled bag. Swedish castle and mansion owners slept on soft mattresses and pillows already in the 16th century. Feather-filled mattresses were used also in Finnish medieval castles but in to the guest chambers of a rustic home those did not come into use until the end of the 19th century.

As a sheet, there was a short warp or a ”raiti” e.g. a covering used on straw beds in particular. In the 18th century, a short bottom sheet replaced the ones mentioned above. The top sheet did not become common until the early 20th century. As early as in the 19th century, in addition to the bottom sheet, top sheets made of linen or cotton might have been used at the homes of the civil servants. The top sheets were often decorated with broad lace-borderings, embroideries or markings. Besides skin rugs and mantles, long-tufted ryas were popular as sleeping covers in drafty rooms. Ryas are known in Finland as early as the 15th century. For example in parsonages in Western Finland and in wealthy peasant houses, the ryas were used as bed-coverings up until the end of the 18th century, after which the padded silk and cotton quilts spread to the gentry homes.

The textiles on the bedroom’s bed are replicas of the originals, except for the sheet. A laced, factory made coverlet is folded up at the end of the bed. On the bed there is a lace-decorated bag for the nightgown. The red quilt is a copy of the 19th century, real silk and hand-stitched wedding quilt. In the 19th century the original pillowcase, decorated with double embroidering belonged to an owner of a manor in Maaninka, near Kuopio.

At the corner of the room, there is a marble-surfaced table and a set of washing utensils. The washing utensils, including a water jug, a washbasin and a chamber pot, are from the 1900–1920’s. They were produced by Arabia, a well-known Finnish ceramics company.

In the 18th century bidet, a novelty from France, was introduced in the North. This object remained rare here. In the bidet, there is a curve-edged washbasin made of porcelain. A pair of these rarities from the turn of the 20th century, ended up in to the Kuopio Museum’s collections. One of them was later turned into a taburet, which is a little stool.

The style of the rocking chair is neo-Rococo.

On the window wall, there is a plaster copy of Thorvaldsen’s Christ statue standing on a pedestal.

Room 230/Minna Canth’s room

Author, playwright Minna Canth lived in Kuopio next to the cathedral, by the Snellman Park. The building is still there, at its original site, in the corner of the Minna Canthin katu and Kuninkaankatu streets, although its exterior has changed. In 1937 the museum got a whole set of furniture and some books, which had belonged to the writer. Some of these items were set on display for the first time in 1952 when Minna Canth’s room was opened to the public in Kuopio Museum. From there the interiors were transferred to the Old Kuopio Museum, which was opened in 1982.

The centre of the room is dominated by a neo-Rococo style set of a sofa and armchairs, which used to belong to Minna Canth. At her home, they were situated in the writer’s study. Out of the revivalists styles, neo-Rococo was the most comfortable and homely one. The style came to Finland from St. Petersburg in the 1840’s. Unlike its exemplary style it favoured dark wood species like walnut and mahogany tree – in Finland dark stained domestic species of wood were used. A plenty of upholstery was used in furniture. The shape of the furniture was curved-like and the legs of the furniture were shaped like a gently sloping letter S. The wooden parts of the furniture were also decorated with wood carvings. Small wheels were often attached underneath the chairs and sofas in order to facilitate mobility. Neo-Rococo favoured textiles with large patterns: carpets, coverings, curtains and tablecloths flowered. Cross-stitch embroidery was in fashion. The most favoured textile fabric used for the furniture was red plush.

Behind the set of sofa, on the wall, there is a picture of Minna Canth, taken by Victor Barsokevitch. On the right side of the picture are framed, enlarged photographs of the writer and her spouse, lecturer Johan Ferdinand Canth. The pictures on the left are of writer’s father, Gustaf Vilhelm Johnson and her mother, Ulrika Johnson.

On the door-wall, leading in to the dining room, there is a framed photograph of Minna Canth in her homely surroundings. She is sitting on the sofa, which is on display. The picture underneath it portrays lecturer Canth’s mother.

Oil painting above the étagère portrays Minna Canth’s daughter, Hanna.

The writer’s favourite place was the rocking chair, where she often sat and wrote. The carpet on the rocking chair is a copy made in the museum, according to the original one.

In the corner, by the door, there is a bookcase, which belonged to Minna Canth. In the bookcase, there are some books out of her book collection.

It is mentioned, that there were some pot plants in the writer’s study, among other things a philadendron and an India-rubber plant. Indoor plants, planted in porcelain pots, started appearing in to the homes of the upper class families at the end of the 18th century. In the homes of all social classes pot plants did not become common until the second half of the 19th century.

In addition to the writer’s literary production, there are also some small objects on display in the chest of drawer’s vitrine, which belonged to her: an inkbottle, a sugar basin, a sugar shifter and some turned photograph holders, in which there are pictures of Minna Canth’s daughters Hanna and Elli Canth. In Hanna Canth’s birthday book, her mother’s name and birthday have been marked down.

Minna Canth

Ulrika Vilhelmina (Minna) Canth was born in Tampere on 19 March in 1844. Her father, Gustaf Vilhelm Johnson, was a foreman in Tampere’s cotton factory. Her mother, Ulrika Antintytär (Patronymic surname: “Antti’s daughter”), was born to a peasant family from Kangasala. Both of her parents were of rustic origin from Häme.

When Minna was eight years old, her family moved from Tampere to Kuopio where her father started to carry on a yarn shop business. In Kuopio, Minna went to a Swedish girls’ school. In 1863, a teacher’s training college was opened in Jyväskylä. Minna Johnson applied and was accepted to the college, and started her studies among the first students. In the autumn of 1865, she married her teacher, lecturer Ferdinand Canth. After the death of her husband in 1879, Minna Canth moved to Kuopio with her seven children and took on the responsibility of her family’s yarn shop.

Minna Canth became the sole provider for her family at the age of 36. Her success in business provided her an opportunity to write. In her writings she payed special attention to social defects. Taking Brandes, Taine, Ibsen, Strindberg and Zola, among other things, as literary exemplars, she gradually developed into an opponent of social injustice by awakening and pointing out evils, by speaking out for the deprived of the society and paying attention to the subordinated position of women.

Already starting from 1874, she wrote articles to promote temperance in the Keski-Suomi newspaper edited by her husband. These articles led in to her spouse’s dismissal from the editorial staff. She published her first novel compositions in Päijänne Newspaper, established in 1878, in which she wrote also about women’s rights. Her first play “Burglary” was presented in Finnish Theatre on 23 February in 1882. In the 1890’s Minna Canth’s era of socially critical tendentious literacy ended and the writer went on contemplating social classes in a more peaceful manner. Minna Canth died in Kuopio on 12 May in 1897.

Room 229/Dining room

Middle class home of the end of the 19th century had several rooms, which were customarily furnished with different decoration styles. Dining room was one of the most essential rooms. For its furnishing, neo-Renaissance or neo-Baroque were favoured in particular. Often a massive cupboard was a part of the dining room’s furnishing in addition to the set of table and chairs.

The set of table and chairs represents most closely the neo-Baroque style. The set of dishes on the table used to belong to a merchant and manufacturer, Herman Saastamoinen from Kuopio who acquired it from St. Petersburg. By the wall, there is a rustic cupboard, which has the year 1822 painted on the other door.

Close to the wall of the dining room, there is a cross-shape legged ”serveeraus” e.g. serving-table, on the top of which is blazing a samovar on its tray. Only the wealthiest of the families had samovars. They spread around in Finland at the end of the 18th century. In the beginning of the next century even civil servants in Kuopio owned ”tea-kitchens” made of copper and brass. Cylindrical samovars did not become common in Finland before the 1871 World fair of St. Petersburg.

On the wall next to the samovar hangs a crumb-scoop and a brush, which were used to sweep up the crumbs from the tablecloth.

On the side of the dining room, there is a harmonium with its stool. Before the 19th century, keyboard instruments were rare in Finnish homes. In the 19th century, the table-like square piano became the most common keyboard instrument. It was not before the 19th century that these instruments started to be built on a larger scale. They were also imported from abroad. In the families of civil servants and merchants in Kuopio, a forte piano was known since the first half of the 19th century but remained a rarity. Nevertheless, there might have been an organ harmonium even in a home of a more modest dweller in the beginning of the 20th century.

In front of the oven, there is an oven front screen e.g. a fire shade. In the homes of the gentry, the heating oven’s opening was covered with this sort of wooden frame, on which a decorative piece of cloth, embroidered with plant or animal motifs, was tautened. According to the estate inventory, the oven front screens did not appear in the homes of the civil servants in Kuopio until the second half of the 19th century.

Even the damper strings were usually covered with an embroidered strip of cloth.

Already in the beginning of the 19th century, paintings were organised in groups. At the end of the century groupings became a necessary because of the amount of the pictures on display. Sometimes the entire wall was covered by paintings of unequal size, by photographs and round reliefs. The biggest of the paintings in particular, were often hung in such a manner that they were strongly leaning downwards. The painting arrangement on the dining room’s wall portrays among other things some views of Kuopio’s surroundings. A big part of the paintings were made by J.Fr. Tuhkanen at the end of the 19th century.

Room 227/Gustavian room

At the time when Finland was a part of Sweden (Swedish reign ended in 1809), developed a stylistic tendency including nationally distinctive characteristics in accordance with the style of Louis XVI, whose personal contribution to the development of this style was significant. Gustavian style dates from 1775 to 1810. It can be subdivided into two sections, the early and late Gustavian styles, transitional period being the 1780’s.

The style was manifested in the royal castle of Stockholm in such a clear and bare way that it was almost, as it was, suitable to serve as a model and to be adopted in all places. The furniture were of a lucid line and since the quiet ornamentation also allowed the application of domestic species of wood, the style could be commanded by the masters of the people. The Gustavian style did indeed supersede the forms of Renaissance in popular art, and Gustavian chairs, sofas, chests of drawers and cupboards became standard models for master craftsmen of the people.

In addition to the French influence, Gustavian style got some characteristics also from England. Three style-shades can be seen in furniture: French-type, English-type and mixed types of Rococo and Gustavian styles. Just as Renaissance, Gustavian style was also characterized by architectonic lucidity. The curved lines of Rococo straightened. Typical decorative motifs for the furniture, among other things, were meanders and a running dog, strié and vertical grooves e.g. channelures, girlandies e.g. a painted festoon composited out of leaves, flowers and fruit, ribbon rosettes, braids, and strands of pearls. The main colour of the Gustavian interior was pearly grey. Besides that, also other pastel colours such as pink, blue and green were used. The sets of furniture were light-coloured except for the chests of drawers. Rectilinearity of the style was often emphasized by striped textiles.

Gustavian time was an ideal era for the chests of drawers. A secretaire e.g. a bureau was typical of that time. The style also created the original forms of the straight-legged tables. There were sofas both with enclosed and lathed backs. The peoples’ carpenters adapted the spindled sofa, which later developed into a form of bed, which was to be pulled out from the side.

The most popular Gustavian piece of furniture was probably the chair, of which there are several different modifications. The chairs with the medallion e.g. oval-shaped backs were one typical model of Gustavian chairs. The rustic chair with the back of spindels was the most common piece of furniture of the people. Downwards narrowing, straight legs of this chair are supported by a lattice, shaped like letter-H. The back of the chair and the seat are rectangular.

Old Kuopio Museum’s Gustavian room is furnished with a set of furniture, which represents the Gustavian style influenced by the French style-shade, including a sofa, two armchairs and two small chairs. The wooden parts of the set of furniture are carved with classical ornaments, highlighted with green paint: with braids, square rosettes and strands of pearls. To the ends of the sofa, on a blue-green ground with brown shades, has been painted a picture portraying an antique lyre player. At the lower parts of the chairs’ backs are turned lattices. According to the tradition, this set of furniture comes from the town Turku when it was under the sway of Sweden. The set was probably made by Johan Lindgren from Stockholm who acted there as a master in 1786–1800. As a general rule, the pieces of furniture were placed next to the walls at this time.

In the corner of the room there is a tiled oven dating from the early 19th century, the era between late Gustavian and Empire styles. Originally, the oven has been in a house in Kuopio, which was built in the early 19th century. It was probably set up by Anders Malmgren who at that time was the only tiled oven builder in Kuopio. In 1927, this oven was transferred to Kuopio Museum where it was on display for almost four decades. For its shape, the oven is a simple one. The decorative figure of the facade is formed by two spheres outlined by leaf ornaments, which rest on two Ionic columns decorated by vertical ornaments. In addition to the decoration, there are two winged lion figures with eagle-heads, in other words griffins, and a large amphora with two ears. Only a few tiled ovens have been preserved from the end of the 18th century and early 19th century although they were an integral part of the fixed interiors in wealthy houses. Probably more common than the ovens described above, were modest, self-coloured tiled ovens, which could have been produced as local handicraft.

On the wall behind the sofa, there is a marking linen dating from the early 19th century. On the window wall there is a mirror, which has gilded frames and a medallion-shaped decoration on the upper part. The mirror-table underneath the mirror belongs with it. On the table top, made of white marble, there is a wooden case, which is painted green. It is decorated with perforation-carvings and it imitates late-Baroque, perforation-decorated silver cases. Kuopio Museum received the case already in 1884.

Room 226/Guest chamber

In front of the window, there is a simple, Gustavian settle, which can be pulled out from the side. The settle was a utility piece of furniture, serving as a seat at daytime and as a bed during the night. These kind of sofas with the lattice-like backs became common in late-Gustavian period.

Over the period of Baroque in England appeared first long case clocks, which are also often called Grandfather clocks. The Grandfather clock in the guest room represents stylistically primarily early Rococo, in other words Queen Ann’s style with its angulated form and square clock face. Grandfather clocks were first used in mansions, no later than in the beginning of the 18th century. In rustic houses, they appeared in the end of the 18th century. The grandfather clock in the guest room was probably made in 1776. It has belonged for example, to a chaplain (1725–1805) and to a vicar (1759–1829).

The chest is one of the oldest pieces of furniture in the museum. It is a multifunctional piece of furniture, which could have been used not only for storing and transporting goods but also as a seat and a table. This very piece of furniture has been used as a chest for clothes, for travelling e.g. a trunk, for money storing e.g. a coffer, for storing food, as a bridal box and as a seaman’s chest and there are also chest benches, chairs and tables.

The chest with an arched lid and painted decoration in the guest room was made by Pekka Karvinen. Inside of the chest’s lid the year 1803 and the initials PK and IN have been painted. The most typical types among Finnish chests are the ones with flat and arched lids, the latter of which was used mainly for storing clothes or as a bridal box. Since the end of the 17th century, the initials of the chest’s owner and some flower motifs have been painted inside the lid of the bridal box, which was also known as a “hope chest”. During the period of Rococo the arched lid model became more common and the painted decoration started to appear also on the outer surface. Painted decoration remained diverse far into the 19th century.

On the guest room’s wall, there are two framed marking clothes on which the year 1840 has been embroidered. These kinds of marking clothes were being made in the homes of the gentry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Different sorts of pattern motifs were sewn on the marking clothes by cross-stitching. A thin, rectangular bottom cloth was outlined by edge ornaments, the alphabet and numbers were embroidered on the upper area of it. On the lower area a date, the initials, plant and animal ornaments and geometrical motifs were embroidered on.

The chest of drawers with its curving lines reflects the influence of Rococo.