Chairs, sofas and beds

The chairs and sofas in the collection vary from simple wooden structures to ingenious collapsible seats and richly decorated thrones that were once reserved for only the most exalted royal and patrician behinds, such as the throne on which Willem III sat at his induction, or the seat from which the Dutch East India Company judge on Ambon pronounced sentence. The 16th-century Italian sgabello may not look like a chair, but it is!
The museum also has a stylish 18th-century garden bench from Meer en Berg in Heemstede.

In addition, the Rijksmuseum also has various beds: a four-poster was the kind of showpiece with which the wealthy in the 18th century could imitate the French monarch Louis XIV, who received his guests while lying in bed.