Research
Of well figured mahogany. Surmounted by a statuary marble top with dished center and a neoclassical carved ogee molded edge resting upon a plain frieze with knulled molding. The upper section with four sheer mahogany uprights interspersed with four columns of open bookshelves. The lower section topped by a circular narrow shelf with molded edge. Below are conforming open shelves with shaped mahogany divisions. The whole resting upon a plain plinth. Minor repairs to veneers. Minor structural and shelf replacements.
The present bookcase is a most unusual example of a peculiarly Regency English circular form. In his important publication The Repository of Arts (March 1810), Rudolf Ackermann illustrates a bookcase in the round, which he describes as “an ingenious and elegant contrivance.” The illustrated example was manufactured by Morgan & Sanders with permission of the patentee, the bookseller Benjamin Crosby, whose patent for a “machine or stand for books…which may be turned or moved at pleasure, with cases to receive books” was recorded in 1808.
Full research report available on request.