Hanging bookshelf, English, 1760-1780, mahogany with pierced fretwork

A mahogany hanging bookcase comprising a two-drawer compartment at the bottom and two shelves above, framed by pierced sides cut out with gothic fretwork. The front edge of the sides is straight (vertical) between the drawer-compartment and the middle shelf, but between the middle and top shelves, and above the top shelf, it is shaped with S- and C-scrolls which recede towards the top. As a result the top shelf is shallower than the one below.

The fretwork in the sides is cut out from solid mahogany, not plied. The sides are left in the solid in the space for the drawer-compartment and at the junctures with both shelves.

The drawer-compartment is made with a central vertically-grained partition housed in grooves in top and bottom boards, the grooves V-mitred on the front face but fully-square behind. The bottom board appears to be housed in a rebate in each side, the joint then covered underneath by mahogany veneer, which has largely worn away; or possibly it was housed in a groove, the bottom edge of which is largely worn down. (Either way, it would seem that the cabinet has spent much of its life resting on another surface, not hanging.) The upper board of the drawer-compartment is joined by a sliding dovetail to each side (though at the left end the dovetail is cut only at the upper edge). The two shelves are likewise joined by sliding dovetails to the sides.

The bookcase is now fitted with two modern brass mirror-plates on the top shelf, each c. 5½ inches from the ends, and a similar mirror-plate at the middle of the bottom board. The original fittings were probably on the top shelf (nearer the middle than the present mirror-plates); this now has a patch at the back edge, c. 12 in. long x ½ inch deep, 9-3/4 inches from the left end and 8 inches from the right end. There are also traces of other fittings: a single screw-hole in the back edge of the top shelf, left of the patch; and two nail(?)-holes, for a plate, in the back edge of the middle shelf, left of centre.

The drawers are made with oak sides dovetailed to the mahogany front and the oak back. All four sides are rebated to receive the laterally-grained oak drawer-bottom, which originally was seemingly just glued in place on all four sides. On the left drawer the rebated bottom edge of the left side has sheared away, exposing the edge of the drawer-bottom; and the drawer-bottom is now fixed to the front with three evenly-spaced brad(?) nails (the right one of which has split the wood of the drawer-bottom). On the right drawer the drawer-bottom has been re-glued and partly pinned in place.

The brass knob-handles are probably replacements for wooden knobs. They are fitted in the same holes, as seen from the back, but the handle of the left drawer appears to go in at a downwards slant, not using the original hole, which is exposed here.

Museum negative 74591 shows this on display in Gallery 40 in 1936 as part of a display of Georgian furniture.

Hanging shelves became popular in the middle of the 18th century. The earliest published designs appeared in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director of 1754, including a design quite close to this example. Over thirty years later Thomas Hepplewhite was still promoting similar designs with fretwork sides. He remarked that such pieces 'are often wanted as Book-Shelves in Closets or Ladies' Rooms; they are also adapted to place china on; should be made of mahogany.'

W.16-1932