Garden Museum

Room 17 – Garden furniture and ornaments

Gardens and parks were also always lived-in spaces, decorated and furnished in the style of the times. Many different kinds of decorative features were available for gardens, including trellises, flower stands, ornamental vases, plant containers and decorative edging for flowerbeds. Ornamental vases in a wide range of forms, sizes and materials were dominant features, but even less obvious details such as the edging around a flowerbed added colour and variety to the individual garden.

The most important items of garden furniture were the seats. In Baroque gardens they formed part of the symmetrical design. It was only with the introduction of landscape gardens that value was attached to comfort and locations with attractive views; at the same time the seat itself also became a picturesque feature. Towards the end of the 19th century the reclining garden chair also came into fashion. It was invented as the garden changed its function to become a private leisure facility.