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In this late Victorian mansion redundant structural members are used for accent and emphasis. Gables, towers, and peaked roofs are all designed for their picturesque qualities.

Henry Hobson Richardson adapts Romanesque architecture in a free style. His work has a powerful feeling for elemental massing which is enhanced by his use of rough-hewn stone. Richardson is the most important American architect to emerge in the 1870's and in many ways he is America's first architect of world importance. Trinity Church is his first important building.

Victorian eclecticism is exemplified in this bed of papier-mâché. Built over a brass frame, it combines the chinoiserie of the eighteenth century with the solemnity of the Renaissance. The dark olive canopy, oriental paisley spread, and the crimson walls are typically Victorian.

This center table of 1869 is based on the influential work of Charles Eastlake, who reinterpreted Renaissance and Greek styles. The table-top design in marquetry recalls the Louis XIV style. The base combines Neo-Greek and Renaissance elements. The soupiere on the lower stretcher derives from Louis XVI designs.

Exhibited at the Crystal Palace in 1851, this massive and highly ornamented sideboard typifies the Victorian style. Most prominently placed are the six classical figures in the central section and a shepherdess and frolicking children on the pediment. The cabinets are richly decorated with intarsia and porcelain plaques. On the second level is a frieze of dead fowl and intricate volutes. Six hounds hold up the chest from the base.

Edward Godwin's remarkable sideboard of 1861 is a monument in modern furniture design. Influenced by the Japanese it is reduced to structural and utilitarian elements which are also ornamental. Simple cabinets are on stilts above a table with folding wings. The surface is painted black. There are gray inset panels with brass hinges and pull rings. All the key lines in the sideboard's design appear to extend beyond the work itself.

The stark and functional pine furniture was made by the Shakers toward the end of the century.

The turn of the century sees a move away from the Neo Classical and Gothic Revivals. While Frank Lloyd Wright's dining room furniture is notable for its natural appearance, there is still a gesture toward the past in the slope of the backs, the curve of the arms in the chairs; and the table seems to be a simplification of classical tables of the 18th century. Characteristically the chairs have full-length back splats. Both the large and hexagonal tables are supported by intersecting panels.

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