Domestic Furniture at the Catalan Textile Colonies. Case of Study: Borgonyà or “The Colony of English People"

Abstract

The present study is an analysis of the domestic furniture of the workers of the Industrial Colonies in Catalonia, taking like an example the specific case of the Colony of Borgonyà.

The choice of Borgonyà is not a coincidence, the Colony is especially interesting because his peculiar cultural contrast, combining the Scottish heritage in the construction of the houses with the local tradition in furniture. Also, most of the current population of the Colony were workers of the factory, so thanks to their personal testimonies and family pictures, we can make an accuracy reconstruction of the history of the worker’s domestic interiors.

Throughout the study, we will identify different qualities and furniture’s typologies related with the different status of the workers. We will recognize rural traditional furniture pieces at the ordinary worker’s houses in contrast of contemporary furniture at the keeper’s houses, with the quality of a middle-class bourgeois family.