Furniture Museum Vienna

The Imperial Furniture Collection (German: Hofmobiliendepot) in Vienna is a furniture museum that holds one of the world’s most important furniture collections.

The museum now mostly houses furniture from the Habsburg kings. Furthermore, the museum provides an overview of the history of Viennese cabinet building and interior design, from Imperial Household vendors to well-known painters of the early twentieth century, Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffmann, and Otto Wagner, who typified Vienna’s residential architecture.

The main building is located at Andreasgasse 7 in Vienna’s Neubau neighborhood.

Collection

The museum now houses a huge collection of authentic Habsburg furniture, ranging from commodes to imperial thrones. Even displays that look bizarre now, like as spittoons that were popular a century ago, may be seen.

Austrian furniture designers and architects from the twentieth century are also included.

The Imperial Furniture Collection is organized as a branch of the Schönbrunn Palace Cultural and Joint Operating Company (Schloss Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.).

For the duration of their tenure, all federal government ministers may borrow furnishings for their chancellery. Embassies utilize furniture from this depot, while film studios employ original furniture in their productions.

History

The first Court Furniture Inspector (Hofmobilieninspektor) was appointed in 1747 to oversee the inventory, upkeep, and transportation of furniture belonging to Empress Maria Theresa’s imperial court. This court department was renamed the Court Furniture Directorate (Hofmobiliendirektion) in 1809 and was in charge of purchasing new furniture for the imperial family. The current Imperial-Royal Court Furniture Depository (k. k. Hofmobiliendepot) on Mariahilfer Straße 88, together with adjoining workshops and coach houses, was established in 1901 as a central storage facility for furniture that was not in use. Because the Habsburgs outfitted their mansions and palaces in line with period style and their own artistic sensibility, the show included 160,000 objects. Everything that was no longer in use was simply taken to the depot.

The whole imperial furniture collection was given to the Republic of Austria following the fall of the Danube monarchy in 1919. Part of it was and still is utilized for representational purposes, such as the official houses of federal presidents.

Vienna, Austria