Many Fantastic Cases Of Vintage Bookcases
When searching for vintage bookcases, home pieces will normally date from as far back as 17th century when case home furniture began to be manufactured in significant amount. Bookcases of course may be traced back as long as the late 16th century and you will find some incredibly fine examples at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library. Early good examples of bookcases had been normally produced of oak, and tended to be plain as opposed to good looking. Extremely early books would be laid flat on the shelving, also it was only using the coming of the print business that spines and titles would be displayed outwards.
A walnut bureau bookcase in the time of Queen Anne (1702-14) is really a very high-quality example of an earlier antique bookcase. Items such as this formed part of an emerging trend in furnishings making in Britain, with all the arrival of Huguenot worksmen expelled from France at the end of the 17th century and these new forms of manufacture remained throughout the 17th century. The bureau bookcase was an encased set of shelves set upon a bureau or writing desk. The table had a flip down flap with sets of compartments organized below. The cabinet added to top to hold the books had two typically mirror glazed doors which helped to encourage light. These cabinetry had been generally pedimented on top to offer an architectural quality towards the piece.
As the 1700s progressed, varying types of vintage bookcase evolved. Significantly larger architectural pieces had been becoming made for libraries as well because the smaller miniature bureau bookcase for the drawing area. Walnut had now become incredibly scarce and mahogany was becoming brought in as its alternative. The bookcase wasn’t only built to showcase books but also to showcase the art of a cabinet maker and several fantastic examples remain from the time of George III onwards. Door fronts were generally glazed within astragal mouldings and beading and these decorative glazed doors could range between fairly plain to extremely elaborate.
One of the most amazing bookcases is the breakfront. These are huge architectural pieces with broken pediments and moulded cornices, generally built from mahogany. They might be fully or half glazed with cupboards instead of bureaux underneath, normally with 3 or 4 sets of shelving, with the central set pushed frontward or breaking the front of the piece.
On the way to the end of the 1700s, decorators like Robert Adam involved furniture like the secretaire cabinet and secretaire bookcase into their general home design. The considerably lighter weight satinwood had grow to be common in this later period and Adam used craftsmen and designers to decorate furnishings with marquetry inlay or colored neoclassical motifs and garlands of flowers. Some items have been really bright and vibrant indeed.
A lot of Queen Anne, Georgian and Neoclassical home furniture through the 17th century was revived during the Victorian times so there remains a wonderful choice of well built, big and far more compact vintage bookcases in a selection of guises to choose from. They’re very imposing pieces of furnishings making exceptional investments for the budding vintage collector, or for the overall investor.
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