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Ec67-1181 19th Century American Furniture And Furnishings, Magdalene Pfister

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

By popular definition an antique is an article one hundred or more years old. It is from the Victorian period that we have the "new antiques." The nineteenth century is considered by many authorities as a time of poor design and bad taste. However, when some of the pieces of furniture were taken from the clutter of patterns and bric-a-brac, they possess a certain charm. The furnishings reflect the ambitious people who were climbing industrially and socially. The history of furnishings in the nineteenth centory has no clear-cut pattern, but many overlapping developments and changing fashions. An industrial revolution was …