LIBRARIES AND BOOKCASES. 



quadrant arms to support 

 it, tin: most convenient 

 and the most unpleasant 

 i 11 appearance is the 

 American roll-top desk. 

 Its proportions are in 

 variably ill-conceived, and 

 the curve of the roll top 

 is usually the mosl ugly 

 possible. Nevertheless, its 

 practical merits are not to 

 be denied, and Fit;. 70 

 shows an ingenious at 

 tempt by Mr. Arthur T. 

 Bolton to mask its native 

 ugliness by surrounding 

 it with a mahogany book 

 case. The side wings are 

 of the ordinary type 

 with projecting cupboards 

 below. The middle section 

 is made of larger pro 

 jection, so that it over 

 hangs the top of the desk 

 a little and incidentally 

 provides space in its two 

 gla/.ed cupboards for the 1 

 of books of moderate size. 



65. 



KVONSIIIRE HOUSE. 



argest folio volumes Between them is room for an old clock and tor a row 

 By treating desk and bookcase as a whole, the unhappy proportions of the 

 former have been masked, while its practical virtues remain unimpaired. 



So far we have dealt chiefly with the bookcase itself. We come now to the important que&amp;gt;tion 

 of the relation of case or shelves to the general architectural treatment of the library. There is 

 certainly nothing which furnishes a room in so ripe and satisfying a fashion as a great tapestry made up 



of volumes clothed in the divers 

 fashions that mark the history of the 

 bookbinder s art. Of pictures in the 

 library one demands but few, and 

 they should be alive with literary or 

 historical associations, and rather 

 M em to illustrate the books themselves 

 than stand out abruptly as claiming 

 attention in their own right. Fig. 71 

 illustrates this aspect of the question. 

 It shows a library fitted some years 

 ago to the designs of Sir Robert 

 Lorimer at Fettercairn, Forfarshire, 

 one of the homes of Lord Clinton. 

 The house is old, but has suffered 

 considerable alterations during a period 

 careless of architectural wisdom. A 

 large library was wanted, and two 

 rooms were thrown into one, making 

 an apartment about forty feet long. 

 Bookcases were run along the entire 

 side of the room, and the frieze was 

 brought out to the face of the book 

 cases at the top. In this frieze were 

 set a number of family portraits, which 

 thus appear flush with the bookcases, 

 while the coats-of-arms of the various 

 families that have been connected 

 66. AT LYMPNE CASTLE. with the house were carved on the 



