4. Lady´s budoir

A boudoir (from the French boudeur - sulky) was an elegantly furnished small private room that served the housewife. Usually, boudoir was located between the living room, the bedroom and bathroom. It was used for changing the housewife's dress and for taking a rest. Boudoir appeared in French palaces in the 18th century. It was used in wealthier households in the Rococo and Classicist periods until early 20th century. According to customs in large houses, respectively palaces, the women's section together with the boudoir was situated on the sunny side, as it´s the case with this exhibition.

Various women's fashion accessories can be seen in the display case from the beginning of the 20th century, such as a silver crown with a brooch, which was used on the occasion of a silver wedding (in Kežmarok in 1880), the God's Eye pendant, painted with watercolor on ivory (cca 1820), a mirror made in the style of second Empire (cca 1870), as well as a unique piece of jewelry - a brooch made of gray human hair, a "rose" (2nd third of the 19th century) and a brooch made of lava - a Venetian lion (Venice, early 19th century) stored in a pink box. You can also see glass perfume bottles, a belt decorated with enamel, hair pins, a wallet made of seashells, a dance book in which young ladies wrote the order of their ball dancers , bags embroidered with pearls porcelain pastoral scene in a Rococo style.

The women's mahogany desk and dressing table is a testament to the popularity of Japanese design in the early Art Nouveau period (before 1900). There is an Art Nouveau table lamp decorated with etched multicolored glass. The chair and mirror are from the early neo-Rococo style (around 1850). The jewelry box with many small drawers dates back to the end of the 18th century.

Above the early 19th-century sofa there is a portrait of an unknown lady from the 1930s.

Next to the round table, with a stone insert on the table top from the beginning of the 20th century, there is a chair from the Biedermeier period, from the 1930s.

Above the table you can see reproductions of Roman monuments - the Pyramid of Cestia, the Spanish Steps, Via Apia, Angel Castle, St. Peter´s Square and the cupola of St. Peter´s Basilica. Hedviga Szirmay had spent a year in Italy and Rome ranked among her favorites cities, so it is not surprising that she brought these pictures as a memorial from there.

In the wall cabinet there are Baroque cabinet clocks made in Žilina (Mathias Ehrenberg, 2nd half of the 18th century) and an Art Nouveau metal female figure (around 1900).

Next to it you can see a play table from the late 18th century from the Rococo period, which has drawers on each side where players used to keep money. The table has an interesting inlaid decoration in the form of 3D cubes. Painted fan above the game table, with a pastoral scene from of the late Rococo period, has a skeleton made of ivory.

The Neo-Rococo writing desk made of pear wood, presenting women's type of desk (third quarter of the 19th century), has legs shaped like a goat's foot. In the left corner there is a game table from the period of Classicism and above it there is a fan from the same period with a skeleton made of mother-of-pearl. It is decorated with a painted scene from ancient mythology.

A pair of oil paintings from the end of the 18th century next to the door represents St. Apollonia and Mary Magdalene.

In the niche in the right corner, the column clock are decorated with textile flowers (around 1840) in a transitional style between the Biedermeier and the Second Rococo. In front of them there is a Classicist table (last third of the 18th century).

Next to it you can see a pastel portrait of Babeta Mariáši from the end of the 18th century as a child. Her strange appearance is due to the fact that at a time of high infant mortality, there was a belief that if they paint a child with adult traits, he/she will live to adulthood.

To the right of the portrait there are the Biedermeier cabinet secretary (1830 - 1840) and the Neoclassical desk, which comes from the Transylvanian Arad from the 1960s. It features an Empire-style column clock made in Vienna in the early 19th century. They are decorated with mythical creatures - griffins and figures from ancient mythology.

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