40 
THE 
House & Garde 
FRAMING OF YOUR BOOKS 
IVhat Rooms Books Should Go In—A Variety of Cases and 
Queer Corners for Your Friends in Binding 
M. H. BRIDGES 
The acme of luxury is a library 
paneled in English oak with inset 
bookshelves and a plenitude of easy 
chairs. The library of Mr. Henry 
C. Perkins, Hamilton, Mass. 
On either side the fireplace 
bookshelves can be built in, 
as in this reading corner, of 
which Chamberlain Dodds was 
the decorator 
The stone fireplace and vari¬ 
colored bindings give this li¬ 
brary corner character. From 
the home of E. S. Atwood, 
Esq., East Gloucester, Mass. 
C OLLECTING in these days is so fatally 
easy that one has a large library before 
he is aware of it, and naturally his first thought 
is, where to place the books and how to make 
variety so that there will not be the eternal 
sameness of plain shelves around the room. 
While it is a decided advantage to have our 
bookshelves planned by the architect, and built 
in when the house is constructed, circumstances 
necessitate many of us living in an apartment 
or rented house, and we are obliged to con¬ 
sider a less permanent arrangement. To be 
sure, we can go to a store and purchase so 
many feet of bookcases, and spend as much 
money as we desire, but the result is that it 
neither fits the space for which it was intended, 
the size of the volumes, or fits consistently in 
with the scheme of the room. 
The bookcase proper was developed from 
the movable chests, used by the feudal lords, 
to transport their belongings in. This served 
originally as a seat, but was eventually used 
for books, one chest being jilaced over the 
other, and in that 
way forming a case. 
In the late 17th and 
early 18th Century 
we find records of 
its use as house fur¬ 
niture. 
Simplest Forms 
The very cheap¬ 
est and simplest 
form of homemade 
bookshelves consists 
af a number of boxes, 
piled one above the 
other, until the de¬ 
sired height is at¬ 
tained, or proper 
.space acquired. This 
is especially advan¬ 
tageous to the flat 
dweller. When his 
next moving day 
comes he has only to 
turn the case over, nail the top over with old 
boards, and he not only has his books packed, 
but also all arranged when they reach their new 
home. Many a college boy has taken advan¬ 
tage of this fact, and used it successfully, dur¬ 
ing his collegiate course. 
In every well appointed house, there should 
be a place set apart in every room, with the 
exception of the dining room, for books. This 
means we must plan individual bookcases of 
various sizes, suited to our use, where they 
will serve the double purpose of practicability 
and decorative scheme. 
The Shelving 
There is no question but that the library is 
the ideal place for bookcases, and that the 
walls, with the exception of windows, window 
seats and the ever necessary fireplace, should 
be lined with shelves, finished in a kind of 
wood that matches or harmonizes with the fur¬ 
niture. The shelves need not extend to the 
ceiling; in fact, it is far better that they go no 
higher than you can reach, as they are apt to 
be covered with dust, if they are too high up 
to get at conveniently. It is equally a mistake 
to have the shelves start too near the floor line, 
and there should always be left a 6" base, so 
that the dust of the sweeper or vacuum cleaner 
will not settle on your shelving. But there is 
a better scheme than this which is scarcely ever 
used, and that is having a series of low cup¬ 
boards, with solid panel doors, that open out 
from hinged bottoms, and held by chains at 
convenient angles. If we start with a, base of 
cupboards, providing a few sections on top of 
shelves, we shall probably have sufficient room 
for our present library. 
There is an air of inviting friendliness con¬ 
nected with an open bookcase that a closed one 
does not have. An open shelf filled with books 
seems to be put there for use. But there are 
rare treasures and dainty bindings that need 
to be protected from the dust, and so have to 
be hidden behind glass doors. Sliding doors 
are much more convenient than the hinged 
ones, and are prac¬ 
tically no more ex¬ 
pensive, or difficult 
to install. The sim¬ 
plest way of arrang¬ 
ing them is in two 
parallel tracks, the 
doors traveling on 
two countersunk ball 
rollers, in a metal 
channel. 
Framing to Fit 
The framing may 
be simple, yet an ef¬ 
fect of dignity and 
charm can be ob¬ 
tained by dividing 
the space into panels 
with flat bands of 
wood. It is interest¬ 
ing here to study the 
Japanese methods of 
panel division and 
