BIEDERMEIER

CREATED out of a passionate devotion to Biedermeier—shared by Linda Chase, the noted interior designer and writer, and Karl Kemp, the renowned antiques dealer—this book is an extraordinary paean to an irresistible style. The World of Biedermeier celebrates all the elements of the style—the furniture, decorative ornamentation, paintings, porcelain, crystal, fabrics—as no other recent book on furniture and design. The hundreds of brilliant color photographs by Lois Lammerhuber set a new standard for design and furniture photography. Linda Chase's engaging text which includes inter views with leading experts and museum curators, is the most comprehensive account available of this influential and vital style.

BIEDERMEIER furniture and interior design are recognized today as the first great flowering of haute bourgeois taste in interior decora tion. Beginning in the early nineteenth century these ideals in design were pursued by a wide range of society from the Habsburgs and Hohenzollern to the middle class throughout Central Europe. The style ranges from celebrations of comfort, domestic intimacy, and practicality to highly embellished pieces designed for public dis play. Biedermeier's innate classicism, its often lyrical, yet elegant forms, have made it an influential inspiration that is truly timeless.

TO EXPERIENCE the story of Biedermeier, we explore enchanting castles, royal residences, a Roman—inspired bath, museum attics, and storage annexes in Vienna, Berlin, and Potsdam. Lammerhuber was the first photographer granted free access to the extraordinary holdings of the Hofmobiliendepot, which houses the Imperial Furniture Collection in Vienna. Here too are the imperial table settings of the Silberkamrner Museum at the Hofburg Palace, plus features on the work of the great Biedermeier designer Karl Friedrich Schinkel and cabinetmaker Joseph Danhauser. A chapter on current uses of Biedermeier illustrates the timeless quality of this style, from full traditional settings to the way that Biedermeier furniture is eloquently integrated in contemporary spaces. An illustrated reference section will prove an indispensable guide to anyone interested in this rich homage to Middle European culture.