Transylvanian Folk Painted Dowry Box With Drawer

If you visit the Ethnographic Museum in Budapest you will see examples of peasant pine furniture painted in exactly this style and in all likelihood by the same master painter. This piece was done in the later part of this particular painter’s active period, Hungarians call the style ‘Cifre’ and examples can be found like this from the mid-19th century right up until the 1930s. The furniture was made and painted as part of a marriage dowry in certain villages in Central Transylvania inhabited by ethnic Hungarian groups and such pieces are becoming more and more scarce and sought after by collectors in Hungary and abroad.

This box is a mule chest, that is, it has a box and also a drawer at the bottom. It’s really clean. It has the name of either the painter or the betrothed, Katta Miklos, to the interior, and is lavishly decorated to the front, top and sides.

Central Transylvania c.1880-1920

H: 67cm (26.4in)
W: 123cm (48.4in)
D: 63cm (24.8in)

Delivery/Courier: 

Courier/Postage cost arranged separately  (an email will be sent following purchase). 

International postage can be requested, however please take into account delivery costs will be high.