In the 1920s when Otto Petschek built the Villa, the Gold Room was a space for female-oriented activities. After a formal dinner in the State Dining Room, the women would retreat to the Gold Room Salon and the men to the Red Room. Much like then, the space still has that feeling of grandeur and elegance due to the amount of high-end detail.
The Gold Room is located on the first floor of the Villa, towards the southeast end of the building, and measures 8.86 by 5.94 square meters. Through the doors on the northeastern end of the room is the Winter Garden. The doors on the opposite, southwest side, open up to the State Dining Room. The room is rectangular in shape although the building’s exterior facade is curved. Floors measure 4.52 m in height, which is abnormally high considering buildings from this period have floor heights that are closer to 3.5 m. In typical Rococo fashion, the doors are oversized yet resemble the same proportion of the room; they measure 2.82 m by 1.5 m. At the center of the northwest wall is the Gallery entrance which is mirrored by a built-in display case. The frame of this matches the oversized dimensions of the rest of the doors in the space.
If we look inside the physical building structure, the wall width in the Gold Room varies from interior to the exterior, with the exterior wall width measuring up to 1 m and the interior wall width measuring up to 0.7 m. Upon entering the Gold Room from the gallery one gets an exterior view of the Garden Terrace through the south-facing windows. Looking past the Terrace, one can also get a glimpse of the southend of the gardens. There are three doors and two windows that capture this scene. From the Gold Room the Winter Garden is also an outside focal point due to the glass doors separating the two spaces.
The floors of the space are most likely mahogany and laid in a parquet pattern, which is common for the Rococo Style. At the center of the room, the floor is covered by a Tabriz carpet that is created with the Herati design principles and predominantly ivory and light brown in hue.
The walls and doors of the Gold Room are covered with heavily gilded boiserie in the Rococo style. Motifs of shells, acanthus leaves, Rocaille, ‘C’ scrolls, ‘S’ scrolls and flowers are most prominently displayed on and around the doors at each end of the room and are seen more subtly around the shelves and top of the walls. The gilded wall boiserie frames pieces of green silk covering the walls. The same silk is used for heavy window treatments on the south-facing windows. On the southeast wall there is a pair of South-German gilt-wood mirrors hung on either side of the doors leading to the State Dining Room. At the center is a guilt bronze cartel clock modeled after the Louis XV style.
Below: Interactive panorama of the Gold Room recorded with a Panono 360° camera.
The ceilings of the space are painted an off-white color and are curved at the corners. Four Bohemian glass chandeliers are suspended equidistantly from the rooms corners. From each six branches are extruding from the center column. The whole object glistens from the six down lighters striking the drops and lusters.
The majority of the furniture pieces in the space come from The Louis XV era and French influences. At the center of the room sits a large oak dining room table from the 19th century with two Meissen pink rose-covered tureens displayed upon it. Behind the table, on the southeastern exterior wall, stands a 191-centimeter-tall cherry-wood cylinder bureau bookcase dating back to 1780. The parquetry banded cupboard has since been repurposed.
The seating throughout the room is configured to create four conversation areas at each corner of the space. To the left of the cherry-wood cupboard is the first conversation area with a pair of Louis XV style beech-framed bergère arm chairs. In the center of them is one from a pair of Louis XV style Bohemian tulip wood and kingwood commodes with Verona marble tops. The other commode is on the other side of the space. Directly across from this is a long, three-seater settee modeled in the Louis XV style. The fabric on the settee is made of green silk and matches the walls and window treatments of the room. Next to the settee is a small beech frame canape chair that is also from the Louis XV style to match the rest of the room. Other furniture throughout the room includes a pair of Louis XV style beech framed fauteuil chairs with saddle-shaped backs, a French Transitional style tulipwood gueridon that can be seen in the southwest corner, and a Louis XV style table-en-chiffonier side table that can also be seen in the southwest corner.
