I have to look around in my notes from school (furniture design) where I read that in Victorian times the shape of the mouldings, cornices, and other architectural details were not simply ornamental but had symbolic meanings and referred to broader concepts. Looking at a Victorian building with an educated eye one could essentially "decode" a message.
Here is a link to other Victorian symbolism:
http://victorianhairjewelry.com/symbols.html
When I was younger I worked at a high end woodworking tool store and we had a bunch of tools wired to peg board as samples. One day I had to get a new caliper from stock for a customer and he said it wasn't the right one, even though the stock # matched. I checked the new tool against the old one on the peg board and was disheartened to see how cheaply made the new one was.
The old caliper had a beautifully turned adjusting knob with fine knurling and a delicate bead and cove detail, the handle had a small turned finial, and the whole thing was polished. The newer one in comparison, from the same company, had a die cut flat knob with coarse knurling, a stamped caliper and a small steel dowel as a handle. Probably made with five steps as opposed to fifteen or twenty. Score one for the bean counters who do not factor in the lifetime of handling and working with an object of beauty.
Early American Furniture is segregated into different periods and the first period or style of furniture is often called "Survival." It's the Pilgrim's equivalent of cement blocks and pine boards for a bookshelf, characterized by lack of ornamentation and finish, it is wholly utilitarian. It wasn't until later when houses were built, fields were planted, and people had a leg up that furniture began to become decorative. It seems strange that we've regressed in many ways to an aesthetic that is so primitive and brutish.
You really only see such crappy work as the second bridge when you look at eastern germany and russia during communism.