Distinguishing Victorian Era furniture
A lot of people will point to a house and go “Ooh, that’s Victorian”… and well do that for pretty much every old thing they see [at least around here, haha]. It’s much more proper to say antique[something of 100+ years], if you don’t know the era that particular building or antiquity is coming from.
What to look for when identifying Victorian items:
- Mahogany, shades and furnishings [someone break out The Hunger Games puns]
- Claw footed furniture [there’s something about chairs that could really tell you about a time period.]
- needle-pointed pillows [with floral designs]
- Tapestries/Oriental rugs particularly floral and/or with birds
- Stained glass windows
- Primary colored backgrounds on floral/designed wallpapers
- Ornamented woodwork
- Ornamented tombstones [Arcadia inspired], and cemeteries
Obviously there’s much more to era identification, these are just simple starters. Just some of many ways to identify Victorian style :)
In America, these styles are much more common in New England and the Deep South.
There was no exact furniture style, considering the Victorian Era was the Gothic rebirth, and brought back much of the Tudor and Elizabethan style. Also the Victorian Era lasted from 1837 - 1901, Queen Victoria’s reign. Good times.
