Oak Bureau Bookcases
BUREAU BOOKCASES — oak
Eighteenth century oak examples of fashionable objects like bureau bookcases are generally thought of purely as provincial or even country pieces; indeed many are, but the range of quality varies enormously. They were made throughout a very long period of time.
Very typical of the solidly well-made pieces produced in oak; like the previous example it has two candle slides. The fielded panels are well shaped and the top moulding is broad which helps to balance the bulk of the piece. Hundreds like it have been made and others married. Check that any screw holes in the bottom of the top half go through into the bottom. The moulding round the sides should not protrude more or less than half or three quarters of an inch, depth can prove a problem to a marriage, but above all it is the grain of the wood and the colour that exposes previous divorces. Generally not the most striking of pieces but very useful. c.1750
Here for example is a piece in oak which has almost everything one could ask of a walnut veneered example of the same period. One has only to look at the well-designed stepped interior and the fine double domed moulding of the bookcase, to appreciate that it was the customer who asked for a plain bookcase interior, not the maker who couldn’t make one. c. 1710
The shallow curved apron, the mahogany crossbanding and above all the dentil moulding and unimaginative arrangement of the glazing bars all point to a late provincial piece.
Though probably original, the top looks small for the bureau compared with earlier examples, but this is quite usual and was probably accounted for by the lower ceilings of the more modest houses for which such bureau bookcases were intended. c. 1790
Tags: BOOKCASES, bureau, century, crossbanding, Eighteenth, eighteenth century, mahogany