Location: Room IX – Bedroom (bed and bedside tables) and Room X – Charlotte’s dressing room (closet and sideboard)
It is believed that the furniture that makes up this bedroom was given by the city of Milan to Maximilian and Charlotte on the occasion of their wedding in July 1857. For this room, Miramare’s two interior decorators, Franz and Julius Hofmann, drew up an initial design for the furnishings following Maximilian’s instructions. The patron then changed the instructions and wanted furniture from Milan, as recorded in archival documents.
A pair of chests makes up the bed, which has onion feet, mixtilinear headboards and footboards, and decorative mushroom-shaped elements on the corners. Overhanging putti are carved on the front of the footboards. The bedside tables have a parallelepiped shape with a door and drawer on the front and onion feet. The bed and bedside tables form a single ensemble with a closet and sideboard, located in Charlotte’s adjoining dressing room (Room X), of similar type and decoration.
The use of a dark wood such as mahogany and certain stylistic traits confirms that the set was very likely made in Lombardy. The Milanese provenance is evidenced, in addition to Maximilian’s own indications, by a payment note probably relating to the large closet with mirror in the dressing room, which was presumably bought in the city of Milan.
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