Bookcases and display cases or the art of showcasing collections

The bookcase as storage unit

The library is a piece of furniture designed to store books that appeared in England at the end of the 16th century, a little over a century before in France, where this type of furniture is found from the Regency period onwards. It was made from wood resistant to the wood-boring insects that can attack books: cedar, cypress, oak, mahogany, ebony and cherry. Proportionate to the size of the room, the bookcase featured shelves and screen doors. Some of them, known as "bas d'armoire" (bottom of the cupboard), could be likened to high-level furniture.

Empire libraries

Under the Empire, bookcases were large and glazed at the top (two-thirds of the way up). The slightly protruding lower part opens onto two solid doors, decorated with applied bronzes. Among the most common decorative motifs are swans, vine garlands, palms and oak and laurel branches tied with a thin floating ribbon.

Empire-style bookcase

The cornice is straight, the shapes are sober, and the jambs are underlined by flat pilasters or colonnettes decorated with bronzes at the top and bottom. Although monumental bookcases are in the majority, there are also low bookcases or bookcases at support height.

Libraries Catering

Restoration-period bookcases - in mahogany, rosewood or amaranth - are slender and uncluttered. The flat pilaster jambs are topped by a straight, low-relief cornice.

Louis XVI style mahogany veneered display case with marble top

The two or three doors are glazed two-thirds of the way up, revealing the shelves. The lower third, with wooden doors, is inlaid with motifs or dark fillets forming small panels. The quality and finesse of theinlays used by the craftsmen of this period is exceptional, a true work of goldsmiths.

Napoleon III libraries

Although it has evolved little since the Louis-Philippe style - when structures and forms became heavier - the bookcase is a typical piece of furniture of the Napoleon III era. Gothic models (also known as "cathedral-style") are still very much in vogue. Black-lacquered wooden bookcases with two bodies are also appearing: the lower body is closed, while the upper one has two or three glass doors, sometimes with grills.

Like sideboards, bookcases are richly decorated with marquetry in the Boulle or Louis XVI style. Curved, in exotic wood marquetry, Louis XV models are also in vogue. Their ornamentation features gilded bronzes and floral motifs in marquetry.

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Display cabinets

Louis XV-style display case with marquetry decoration

The showcase is a piece of furniture designed to allow a view inside, through a glass front and/or sides, generally consisting of shelves supporting knick-knacks and collectibles. Itappeared under Louis XVI in the form of a small, sober cabinet with glass doors. The ornamentation is discreet, allowing the objects to shine through. The legs of Louis XVI display cabinets are either toupie or fluted, ending in a sabot. The slender, elegant uprights, with canted or fluted columns, follow the fashionable ornamentation.

Louis XVI-style walnut display cabinet with flatware

The success of this piece of ceremonial furniture led cabinetmakers to produce small models that could be placed on top of chests of drawers, or fitted with a pedestal, thus becoming pieces of furniture in their own right: veritable showcase tables. They can be glazed on all sides, or just have a glass top. Later, showcases came in larger sizes, with metal frames and all four sides fully glazed.