Elongated Edwardian Bookcases
BUREAU BOOKCASES Elongated Edwardian
The Elongated Edwardian bureaux described later were often available in a bureau bookcase form, although the bookcase above was often smaller than that of 18th century types. Leaded lights and quaint shapes were
often used.
An oak bureau bookcase with fall open to show the pigeon holes inside. There is a centre cupboard above the fall, with circular leaded-light door. Above this, the top shelf sports a weirdly-carved pediment and finials.
The whole piece is a gesture towards the Progressive and art nouveau influences of the period. Small 2ft.6ins. wide and 5ft.3ins. high so really quite a desirable size for modern rooms.
An oak bureau bookcase which is only a brief development further from the previous bureau. Note the side bookshelves, also a feature of No. 3. The upper shelves are useful but the huge gap below the fall could surely have been used better. The fall is carved with scrollwork and the odd, quirky pierced decoration is, presumably Progressive. 1900-1915
An oak bureau bookcase with a conventional lower half but fitted with leaded-light doors to the upper glazed cupboard, incorporating stained glass, which adds to value.
An oak bureau bookcase with leaded-light upper doors incorporating two oval panels. The lower half has a drawer and two cupboard doors under the fall. 1900-1920
A more coherent oak bureau bookcase design with the flat capped top rail of the Edwardian period which stemmed from Voysey and the original Progressive designers. The centre cupboard above the open fall again
has a leaded-light door but is rectangular in sympathy with the rest of the piece, including the panelled cupboard doors below the fall. The only place where over-exuberance may have set in is in the rather Islamic
arching of the alcoves containing the vases. 1900-1915
A more conventional version of the previous oak bureau bookcase without leading in the glass doors of the upper half. Back in 1910 or so the difference in price between this and the previous one was ten shillings five bob for leading each glass door.
An oak bureau bookcase which owes something to the dresser in its design which is simple and pleasing. These pieces, of characteristically small proportions 5ft.9ins. high and 2ft.9ins. wide will be enthusiastically collected for their use in small rooms one day.
BUREAUX Elongated Edwardian
Following the popularity of the Progressive designers and the influence of Voysey and others, there was a move by the trade, around 1900, to produce designs in the required manner. This resulted in an entirely unique species of elongated bureaux, slightly, but ever so slightly, art nouveau in manner, using a much thinner depth of section, few drawers, if any, and often with elongated hinges to the fall in an ‘artistic’ design. The following section shows a selection of the bureaux; the bureau bookcases have a separate section to themselves.
A typical example of the elongated species with stamped bronze handle and elongated hinges to the fall. Note that there are no drawers only bookshelves below and a typical bookshelf round the top, formed by a solid wooden cresting rail. c.1900-1910
An oak fall-front elongated bureau of the three foot wide, but much less deep, version preferred by the early 20th century. These slenderer or should it be narrower versions of the old 18th century invention, seem to
have met a need for bureaux for smaller rooms. This is a very straightforward version with a simple interior and three drawers under. 1900-1920
A roll-top version of these oak bureaux with shelf above, pigeon holes inside but no drawer under just shelves. Roll top adds to price.
A small oak roll-top bureau with a wooden top gallery rail intended as a bookshelf. The inside is neatly fitted with pigeon holes and there is a drawer and shelves under. 1900-1920
An oak fall-front bureau with a pierced top shelf which exhibits a heart shape and two art nouveau-ish leaves. Otherwise nothing remarkable. 1900-1915
An oak bureau which has a variation from the previous examples in the classic Edwardian shaping of the top rail. That central semi-circular arch is a very popular feature of the period (see Sideboards for similar
examples). It may be thought that since these bureaux have only recently become a feature of the stock of ‘antique’ shops, there will have been little incentive to fake them or gerrymander about with them as yet. Not
so: the author was recently offered one which turned out to have been refitted inside, repaired, improved and generally cobbled together from bits. So be warned.
A small oak bureau (2ft.2ins. wide) of the same genre but with a dash of art nouveau shaping to the top shelf. Pigeon holes inside and shelves under, as before. 1900-1915
A fall-front oak bureau with a pierced fretted gallery round the top (also of oak) and with a drawer and two shelves under the fall. This generic type has been utterly despised until lately, when the use of the piece, the
way it occupies little space, and the fact that it has been cheap, have suddenly made it a regular feature of many ,antique’ shops. 1900-1915
An oak bureau on stand with curved legs and shelf stretcher. The drawer under the fall, and the fall itself, are inlaid with the boxwood and ebony chequered banding ever popular in Arts and Crafts design. The top
shelf is pierced to show a motif of indeterminate sort. 1900-1915
An oak bureau on stand with bobbinised front legs to give an ,old oak’ effect, relevant to the moulding on the fall, slightly `Jacobean’ in character. The ring handles are a Sheraton design.
Tags: Bookcase, bookcase design, BOOKCASES, Bookshelves, bureau, Bureaux, Crafts, cupboard, cupboard doors, Edwardian, edwardian period, Elongated, moulding, sideboard, something, stained glass