The Cleveland Museum of Art has a noticeable collection of furnishings and architectural bits from the American ‘Gilded Age’ of the 1870s to 1890s, when post-Civil War industrial barons and railroad kings practically wallowed in wealth.
Not a ‘Golden Age,’ at least not for the masses, but the newly rich were quick to ‘gild the lily’ with elaborate mansions, ‘baronial furniture,’ lavish entertaining and other examples of what the economist Thorstein Veblen labeled ‘conspicuous consumption.’
Decorated with Native American hunters, flora, fauna and fruits of the hunt, as well as an assortment of amiable hounds, pieces like this used American references in furniture meant to evoke German hunting lodges or French castles. While some of the customers bought furniture in Europe, and in some cases complete buildings moved stone by stone, most of these pieces were built in America. This one is likely to have come from Philadelphia where a number of makers competed and showed their work at expositions.
Despite the opulent optimism of the wealthy in the period, times changed more rapidly than they might have imagined; many of the pieces in the museum come from mansions that either were gone by the 1930s or had redecorated with more ‘modern’ styles.
The ornate furniture featured in this article is a fascinating display of craftsmanship and artistic detail.