The Victorian Dining Room

Elegant dining rooms in the nineteenth century served an important role in the social discourse of the Victorian household. They tended to be "masculine" spaces and typically were filled with solid, heavily carved sideboards and tables, and draped with rich, velvet curtains. Sideboards "groaned" with the weight of opulent silver serving pieces, set off by the jewel—like tones of colored art glass vases and bowls. There could never be too many objects; after all, these were rooms that were m...