Hunting Seating Group from Brienz, Switzerland

This hunt­ing seat­ing group, craft­ed in the Roco­co style, was exe­cut­ed in Brienz, Switzerland.

The four fine­ly craft­ed chairs as well as the small table are made of sol­id wal­nut and wal­nut veneer. The rich­ly carved frames are designed in mag­nif­i­cent Roco­co fash­ion with orna­men­tal and flo­ral dec­o­ra­tion. Volutes and rocaille forms, as well as vine leaves and grapevines, were cho­sen as the main carv­ing motifs for this small seat­ing group.

The seats and back­rests, designed here in medal­lion form, are rich­ly inlaid with hunt­ing scenes in maple and fur­ther enhanced with ink paint­ing and pyro­graph shad­ing. The table­top was like­ly re-veneered at a lat­er date.

The tra­di­tion of hunt­ing motifs and so-called ​“bear fur­ni­ture” in Brienz dates back to the mid-19^th cen­tu­ry. The peo­ple of the region were seek­ing new employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. They drew upon their tra­di­tion­al crafts­man­ship — carv­ing every­day objects and sculp­tures — and devel­oped a new trade.

Many wood­carvers were trained at the ​“Wood­carv­ing School Brienz,” found­ed in 1884. Around 1900, wood­carv­ing employed approx­i­mate­ly 2,000 crafts­men. Brienz wood­carv­ings were pre­sent­ed with great suc­cess at sev­er­al world exhibitions.