york36 The Victorian Parlor c1870 This represents the "best" room in the house of a middle-class family living in the expanding city suburbs. The room reflects comforts and prosperity in an era of industrial wealth and international trade within the expanding British dominion. Most of the furnishings would by now be mass-produced; new production techniques making them decorative, relatively cheap and widely available to growing numbers of people. Furniture and decoration were also losing their regional characteristics. Mass-production standardized design, and improved communications helped to spread this influence speedily to all parts of the country.