A finial, in and of itself, is not something to get all that excited about. It is an ornamental element designed to accent the existing structure of buildings.
You’ve undoubtedly seen them everywhere, possibly without noticing. The ball-style finials atop almost every flagpole and the scroll-esque carvings at the top of columns are some common ones.
Thankfully for our sake, furniture designers have moved the finial indoors.
Finials seem to be finding themselves on a variety of furniture. Most popular of which, are lamps (floor and tabletop) headboards and stand alone decorative elements on stands.
The headboard pictured, for example, has a ball-style finial on the ends and ornamental accents virtually holding up the rope that is strung throughout.
Apart from the furniture they enhance, finials could be utterly useless. However, when they come together with the right pieces, finials surely make the finished product better than the sum of its parts.