Interior design for a country house

At the beginning of his career, Franz Zell worked for the Anton Pössenbacher court furniture factory in Munich. However, Franz Zell had a long-term and close collaboration with the Schoyerer furniture production company in Cham. As a sought-after architect, Zell contracted out the majority of the building carpentry work to the production company in Cham. For the country houses in Neuhaus am Schliersee, Schoyerer not only supplied windows and doors, but also furnishings based on Zell’s designs.

A living room in the style of a farmhouse is still preserved today in the Schöller country house. Zell did not design a faithful replica of historical models here. Although the parlour furnishings correspond to regional models in their form, their colour scheme and composition have been reinterpreted as a room ensemble in Heimatstil.

The historical and current interior photographs are evidence of Zell’s design based on the model of a farmhouse parlour. In the "Volkskunst im Allgäu" exhibition catalogue from 1903, published and edited by Zell, he describes such a parlour: "The furnishings of these living rooms are often similar to those in Upper Bavaria. Very often, panelling is found at the height of the window sill, while a bench stretches around the walls. The panelling, doors [...] even the furniture in the parlour was painted, as is also the case in the Bavarian highlands and Tyrol."

Michaela Thomas