Kathy, those ceramic wheeled castors are good for dating a piece of furniture.
Yep, we've got a bunch here at Chez Grasshopper. Again, 1875-85.
The history of furniture styles in the 19th century is complicated. As Mart has noted in the past, styles occurred concurrently, depending on where you were, but in general styles had ascendency at certain times, i.e. neoclassicism in the early 19th century, rococo revival 1840-1860, Renaissance Revival, Eastlake. Those were the biggies, but there were splinter styles like Egyptian Revival, Moorish, etc. as well. Styles were usually equal parts a desire to innovate coupled with a reaction against the previous style. For example, Charles Eastlake HATED the Rococo Revival, so Eastlake furniture was thought to be a "simplification" expressing "truth" that rococo revival would not, or could not, express. Subsequent history has proven that eastlake, particularly the earlier stuff, was anything but simple. Stickley's craftsman style would demonstrate true simplicity when it came to ornament, although even that looks rich compared to international style modernism.
Styles had "apex" woods that were considered the best at the time. For Neoclassical (Adam) it was mahogany, for Rococo Revival the best pieces were often rosewood, then Renaissance Revival and Eastlake with walnut, then oak at the end of the 19th century. These are generalizations of course, with frequent exceptions, but you get the idea. There is also something to Jacon's idea that new woods took over as old woods became over-harvested. Rosewood is a good example. I don't think it was ever common, but in the 1850s it was recognized as the wood for flagship items like etageres, because not only did it smell good (thus "Rosewood"), but it was difficult to work, challenging even the best furniture makers like Meeks and Belter. Now Rosewood is endangered, and not used for much besides guitar fretboards. Interestingly, it was revived in the 1950s and 60s, along with teak, for radical modernist furniture.
And yes, walnut became a "spray on" feature for 1930s and 40s furniture. Most of the best and most formal stuff was solid mahogany.
