THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT. 



(&amp;gt;O. AT SHIRBUKX CASTLK. 



seventeenth century 

 is worth noting that 



in which the 



delighted. It 



there is a bookcase at Cuckfield Park 



so like the Pepys example as to suggest 



it was made by the same hand. 



It was not until the eighteenth 



century, however, that the free 



standing bookcase came into its own, 



and was the subject of infinite trouble 



in design. One of the debts we owe 



to the group of academic architects, 



who worked under the patronage of 



the great Karl of Burlington is the 



definite architectural character which 



they imparted to furniture design. 



Tins is nowhere more apparent than 



in the very handsome bookcase, now 



illustrated, which was designed by 



\\illiam Kent (Fig. 6 ;). The base is 



treated as a panelled cupboard, and 



the upper part turned into an architectural composition of considerable charm with its broken 



pediment surmounted by an antique bust, and its middle opening finished with a round arch. 



Mr. 11. I!, \Yheatley is the fortunate possessor of a singularly fine bookcase which it seems safe to 



attribute to the great Hepplewhite himself (Fig. 64). Its practical merit consists in the ingenious way 



that it is made to suit both big and 

 little books. The middle part is of 

 considerable projection, and the lines 

 of the vertical beading, which holds 

 the glass, mask the vertical partitions 

 on which the shelves rest. Between 

 these uprights in the middle are two 

 shelves provided to take the largest 

 tomes. Right and left of them are 

 shelves set more 

 small folios and 

 curved wings are 

 smaller volumes. 



Book-lovers will always differ in 

 opinion on the question of bookcase 

 doors. There are some early mediaeval 

 examples of doors filled with a large 

 wire mesh, which protects from theft, 

 but unless curtains are hung behind, 

 it does not deliver the books from 

 dust. Perhaps, on the whole, doors 

 glazed with clear glass are the hot 

 way out. Sometimes, however, as in 

 a very interesting example at Devon 

 shire House (Fig. 65), the doors are 

 rilled with mirrors, a device certainly 

 not to be imitated, except in a great 

 salon, and even then only after grave 

 thought. 



The old examples so far illustrated 

 show that for all practical purposes the 

 designers of the eighteenth century 

 had grasped all there was to be learnt 

 about the care of books. In the equip 

 ment of great public libraries, modern 

 invention has evolved various devices 

 for the saving of space, such as the 



closely 



quartos 



which take 

 while the 

 devoted to still 



61. ONE OF PEPYS BOOKCASES. 



