Side chair ca. 1870 After a design by Christopher Dresser British, Scottish This ebonized chair with gilt, incised decoration reflects the changes in furniture ornamentation and construction that occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century. Design reformers called for a reduction of heavily carved furniture. Exuberantly rendered naturalistic or architecturally derived decoration that was typical of mid-century furniture was deemed immoral, fallacious, and gaudy-it was also difficult to clean since it trapped dust and dirt. Shallow, incised ornamentation was considered more appropriate.Most commercial furniture decorated with glued, machine-carved elements was objectionable to design reformers. In his effort to reform "bad taste" in furniture design and interior decoration, Charles Locke Eastlake condemned excessive decoration and unnecessary affectation, advocating ornamentation suitable to the object it adorns and insisting that the least amount of embellishment be employed.