Unknown Maker, American

For most of the 20th century, interest in "Victorian" furniture was generally overshadowed by the prevailing taste for modem design and manufactures. Over the past 25 years, the Museum has made a concerted effort to collect 19th-century furniture, a natural complement to its superb collection of American painting from the same era. This elaborate center table displays the talents of several skilled craftsmen: carvers, gilders, cabinetmakers, bronze founders, and inlay makers. Probably made in New York, it resided in Boston for nearly a century. The eclectic mix of historical ornament was popular in all the arts of the 1850s, a time of rising incomes, increasing ease of transatlantic travel, and the immigration of thousands of skilled European craftsmen to American cities.