The success of HBO’s drama The Gilded Age has brought renewed attention to the era which gives the show its title: the historical time period defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “a period of American history from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which is known for economic growth, political corruption, fast industrial development and social change, and some people becoming extremely rich while a lot of others were very poor.”
The expression “the gilded age” itself was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner for the title of their 1873 satirical novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. As the name suggests, the Gilded Age was an era focused on the accumulation of wealth as well as on its display, and this can be seen in the surviving visual records of the households of that period, as well as in the sets of the current TV series. Here is a look at five household items which every wealthy Gilded Age family owned.
Giant ferns and other large houseplants
One of the interests of wealthy people in the late nineteenth century was the collection of ferns, which were used as decorative objects in the home. This interest was so prevalent amongst the rich that it led to Charles Kingsley coining the term “fern fever.” Ferns and other large indoor plants were status symbols intended to show that the owner was both cultured and in contact with the natural world. To have these in your home communicated that people belonged to a certain world, and were accordingly prized for that reason.
A piano
Music was very important to Gilded Age society and was viewed as a signifier of taste, education, and wealth. Many of the richest families of this era were patrons of arts organizations, including ones devoted to music. Having a piano in one’s own home was therefore also a symbol of being cultured, as well as a sign that one had both the money to afford such a thing and the space within which to display it.
The value these pianos signified has endured in a literal sense, as shown in the case of a fine Gilded Age piano designed by the nineteenth-century painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema, which sold at auction for $1.2 million in 1997.
Gilded tea sets
The Gilded Age interest in all that glittered extended to the items in which everyday tea was served. Tea sets—consisting of items like cups, a jug for milk or cream, and spoons and tongs for adding sugar cubes—were sometimes made of materials that reflected the owner’s wealth, such as elaborate enameled ones in shimmering jewel-like colors.
Early telephones
The wealth possessed by the richest Gilded Age families meant they had access to the latest technological inventions. While the first telephone was invented by Antonio Meucci in 1849 and Alexander Graham Bell received the first U.S. patent in 1876, mass use did not take off until the technology became more affordable.
However, well-off Gilded Age families could afford to have telephones in their own homes—yet another symbol of wealth and status in the society of their time. These devices also emphasized exclusivity, as ordinary families could not afford them, and hence those who did have the means to own one were able to exercise more social power.
Hidden doors
Wealthy Gilded Age households employed many staff to carry out household duties. However, servants usually tried to keep their presence as low-key as possible, and houses were constructed with special designs meant to minimize their visibility.
These included a number of hidden doors around a house. Sometimes these were concealed behind other objects like mirrors, as seen at places like Lynnewood Hall. Examples of hidden passageways can also be found in Gilded Age mansions like the Biltmore Estate, which was built by a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt dynasty.