Americans attending the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia encountered many marvels of arts and manufacturing. Among them was this octagonal table by English architect E.W. Godwin. With its slender bracing system and elegant stance, the table was one of Godwin’s “Anglo-Japonesque” pieces that emulated the minimal decoration and simplified structure of Japanese furniture. Addressing issues of affordability, utility, and function long before 20th-century designers focused on such concerns, Godwin sidestepped the heavy work of his Victorian contemporaries, and kept his cutting-edge design “as light as is consistent with the strength required.” Eight delicately-turned legs are enriched with a subtle decorative surface that enhances the wood grain. A similar table, exhibited in Paris at the Exposition Universelle in 1878, was admired as “a marvel of constructive skill and strength.”