Mallorca

"Furniture is fairly uniform throughout the island, though some places have better maintained the original style. This is especially the case in the plain, as opposed to what happens with clothing which is progressively losing its traditional character. Chairs (cadires) are very varied, with the seat made of braided palm (bova) or esparto grass. A smaller chair, though made identically, is called a cadireta, and there is a variety without a back called cadires baixes. The latter are very common also on Ibiza and are especially favored by people in the countryside.

Tables (taules) tend to be rectangular, measuring 16 to 20 dm long and 12 to 16 wide. They have four drawers and are made of pine, poplar or other similar trees. The tables used by farmhands to eat are of considerable length, though there are also smaller ones which are referred to as tauletes. A third type of table which seems to have been quite favored on Mallorca are called bufets, though they are no longer made today. Those still remaining in towns and countryside certainly owe their survival to their solid nature. They are rectangular tables measuring 16 to 20 dm long by 12 to 16 wide and 8 high. They’re supported on four oblique legs though lathed and shaped in the most varied ways. Each pair of legs is reinforced by two, equally worked-on slats, strengthened in turn by two iron pieces set to the centre frame of the table underneath. This explains why they lack drawers. These bufets tend to be made of walnut, oak, olive tree or mulberry.

One of the small rooms on the upper floor is normally used to hold the lovely bed for the couple, called llit de camp entorsillat or llit de matrimoni. In towns and homes of wealthier farmers, the bed tends to be elegantly made of walnut, mulberry or another colored wood. The lathed bedposts are joined on one side by a  headboard decorated in the same style. The posts hold up a canopy which, like the curtains and sides of the bed, is made of printed cloth, wool, silk or damask depending on the wealth of the owner. The most common material used is printed cloth with blue or red damask images. Those with less money do without these curtains. It seems that these beds were commonly used throughout Mallorca in olden times. Today, by contrast, they are barely made, and towns tend to favor more modern furniture, even that made from iron. However, to be fair, we should say that old pieces are not discarded.

A characteristic piece of furniture found in every country home like in many towns and in the countryside is the caixa (“box”), today made only occasionally at the express order of farmers. It is a type of chest which generally measures 1.5 m long by 0.5 wide, sitting atop small dowels serving as feet. The chest is made of pine, olive tree or walnut and is richly decorated with all sorts of carvings. It is used to store linens, clothing or other objects of value. The humbler classes may use it to store their entire fortunes. Wealthier owners in some towns progressively add the so-called canteranos or chests of drawers to their collections of furniture and, in modern times, even wardrobes made of varied wood, especially mahogany, walnut or cherry, and decorated with all types of carvings and inlays. The former often include a marble plate, and the latter a mirror on the front."

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria.Las Baleares por la palabra y el grabado. Majorca: General Part. Ed. Sa Nostra, Caja de Baleares. Palma de Mallorca. 1982