Thanks guys.Two things y'all need to know;
"Breakfront".... if you look in the last pic,the center part of the entabliture is outside the plane of the sections over the two side cabinets. Think over your kitchen. The two places "it happens" is..... over the sink,and over the stove. The term/notion is generally accredited to Thos. Chippendale..... here's his theory,some of which isn't in print.
First,black mouldings make zero sense.... I do it because of latent arsehollness. But the reason is..... you can't see the "lines" in a mould that is dark in colour because there ain't any shadows. White is the preferred colour.... think churches. The reason for breakfront is similar. If you're standing looking at the lines of the mould..... that's all they are.... lines. It's not until a "return" is introduced that the "profile" ever gets seen other than at corners.
So there's reason one "Chip" comes up with it. Well,that's close enough that it should begin your journey. The 2nd part of reason one is that it hides mistakes..... remember,in 1750 there ain't no power tools. By laying over,the number of perfect cuts gets a substantial reduction. Reason two,part 1 is it lessons the requirements for long pcs of mould.... again,think 18th century. And frankly it's the same thing today. Part 2 is that by utilizing shorter pcs. we have less waste in the bigger picture.
Reason three is a breakfront is a "natural" demarcation in the way the eye behaves looking at an "element" ( as mentioned by Jeff above).... that's a two way street Jeff. It can be used to draw the eye AWAY as well as towards something. Which leads to another thing,in this case it IS in print....
"Theory of Mouldings"... is a very well done,some say the best,treatise on the subject. C. Howard Walker,author. Get this book..... short read,prolly explains 90 or so % of what's needed for students and practitioners. Written in the 1920's.He was the dean if Harvard's architecture for like 50 years or sumthin. Makes a cpl VERY small mistakes. Great section on how your eye reacts or behaves whether you're looking up,or down at certain profiles and why.