Victorian

Victorian objects are the first ones made in real quantity, and they know it. Machine carving imitates hand carving, veneer imitates solid, and the middle-class parlour fills up with things that were affordable precisely because they were not rare.

Which makes this the period to learn on: it is plentiful, documented, and honest about its own manufacture. Look at the backs and the undersides — that is where the century tells you what it actually did.

Early Victorian (1837–1860) is Gothic and Rococo revival, heavy and dark, made by machine and finished to look hand-cut.

Late Victorian (1860–1901) turns toward the Aesthetic movement and Arts and Crafts — lighter, more decorated, and increasingly self-conscious about manufacture.