A significant part of Rimetea’s traditional heritage is formed by its painted furniture, which began to spread from the first half of the eighteenth century under Saxon influence. Chests, benches, tables, racks, chairs, beds and painted cupboards, carefully constructed by skilled joiners, were richly ornamented, with green, blue, red or brownish-yellow grounds and floral decoration. Painted furniture, and particularly dowry chests, belonged to a wider Transylvanian tradition in which Saxon furniture-making centres exerted an important influence.

These pieces were most often made as dowry gifts and served the representational function of the “clean room” or best room. Almost every item bore the year in which it was made, and an effort was usually made to include the names of the married couple who owned it, or at least their initials. The “clean room” is an established ethnographic term for the representative room of the traditional household, while painted dowry chests are likewise documented as characteristic furnishings of such interiors.

The inscription formed an integral part of the ornamental composition. The lettering was generally colourful, elaborate and richly embellished, and thus functioned as ornament in its own right. Both because of the material in which it was executed and because of the manner in which it was painted, this lettering bears little resemblance to the letterforms used in inscriptions on houses. On furniture, the lines tend instead to be freer and more flowing, echoing the forms of floral motifs and curling tendrils.

On dowry chests, the inscription was sometimes placed on the inner face of the hinged lid, occasionally arranged in a medallion-like composition and surrounded by an elaborate floral wreath.

Árpád Furu, Vernacular Architecture. The Folk Art of Torockó (2010)