Bookcase
Bookcase.JPG
A bookcase is an article of furniture, forming a shelved receptacle, usually perpendicular or horizontal, for the storage of books.
When books, being written by hand, were excessively scarce, they were kept in small coffers which the great carried about with them on their journeys. As manuscript volumes accumulated in the religious houses or in regal palaces, they were stored upon shelves or in cupboards, and it is from these cupboards that the bookcase of to-day directly descends. At a somewhat later date the doors were, for convenience sake, discarded, and the evolution of the bookcase made one step forward. Even then, however, the volumes were not arranged in the modern fashion. They were either placed in piles upon their sides, or if upright, were ranged with their backs to the wall and their edges outwards. The band of leather, vellum or parchment which closed the book was often used for the inscription of the title, which was thus on the fore-edge instead of on the back.
It was not until the invention of printing had greatly cheapened books that it became the practice to write the title on the back and place the edges inwards. Early bookcases were usually of oak, which is still deemed to be the most appropriate wood for a stately library.
The oldest bookcases in England are those in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, which were placed in position in the last year or two of the 16th century; in that library are the earliest extant examples of shelved galleries over the flat wall-cases. Long ranges of book-shelves are necessarily somewhat severe in appearance, and many attempts have been made by means of carved cornices and pilasters to give them a more riant appearance--attempts which were never so successful as in the hands of the great English cabinetmakers of the second half of the 18th century.
Both Chippendale and Sheraton made or designed great numbers of bookcases, mostly glazed with little lozenges encased in fret-work frames often of great charm and elegance. The alluring grace of some of Sheraton's satinwood bookcases has very rarely indeed been equalled.
The French cabinetmakers of the same period were also highly successful with small ornamental cases. Mahogany, rosewood satinwood and even choicer exotic timbers were used; they were often inlaid with marquetry and mounted with chased and gilded bronze. Dwarf bookcases were frequently finished with a slab of choice marble at the top.
In the great public libraries of the 20th century the bookcases are often of iron, as in the British Museum where the shelves are covered with cowhide, or steel, as in the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C., or of slate, as in the Fitzwilliam Library at Cambridge.
There are three systems of arranging bookcases: Flat against the wall; in stacks or ranges parallel to each other with merely enough space between to allow of the passage of a librarian; or in bays or alcoves where cases jut out into the room at right angles to the wall-cases. The stack system is suitable only for public libraries where economy of space is essential; the bay system is not only handsome but utilizes the space to great advantage. The library of the City of London at the Guildhall is a peculiarly effective example of the bay arrangement.
For libraries where space is extremely tight there is yet another system usually called mobile shelving or high density storage. In such systems 12 or more bookcases are mounted on wheels which are integrated in floor level guide rails, in a space normally reserved for 4 or 6 bookcases. It is possible then to visit only two bookcase sides at a time, all the others being pressed close together. Because of the heavy weight of the books most of the systems are electrically powered or have some form of gearing and large wheels to move the bookcases about and create the necessary aisle at the right place. Because of the danger of tripping on the floor mounted rails or being squashed between bookcases these systems are normally reserved for closed stacks were users cannot enter.
The whole question of the construction and arrangement of bookcases was learnedly discussed in the light of experience by W. E. Gladstone in the Nineteenth Century for March 1890.
See also Sympson the Joiner and the early glazed bookcases made for Samuel Pepys.
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopędia Britannica.