Victorian Walnut Bookcase by Jas Shoolbred & Co.

A good quality late Victorian period bookcase in walnut by Jas Shoolbred & Co. of London. Of generous proportions and well constructed in solid straight grain walnut. With a pair of glazed doors to the top over a pair of drawers and a pair of cupboard doors beneath. Both pairs of doors are lockable (key supplied). The pair of glazed doors open to access an interior with adjustable shelving providing ample display space for 4 rows of books. The drawers are fitted with their original attractive solid brass handles. The cupboard door fronts are of pannelled construction and decorated with crisply carved panels, they open to reveal a shelved interior. Cleaned and waxed in our workshops and now offered for sale in excellent condition with a good colour and patina. Splits into 3 sections for ease of installation.

Dimensions:

Width 138cms

Depth 48cms

Height 234cms

Internal shelf depth 26cms

James Shoolbred & Co

The name of James Shoolbred & Co is highly respected among admirers of Aesthetic Movement furniture. Their antique desks, Victorian dining chairs and antique marquetry furniture were produced for wealthy households up to 1931. A particularly fine example of James Shoolbred antique marquetry furniture – an ornate piano by designer Henry Batley – is on display at the V & A museum, London.

Established in the 1820s, James Shoolbred’s Tottenham Court Road company began life as a drapers. It began supplying textiles to the furniture trade, and expanded into the stores either side, branching into interior design. By the 1870s, the company was designing and manufacturing its own furniture.

A major factor of James Shoolbred’s success was their detailed catalogues, which were published from around 1873. Configured to showcase the company’s designs beyond the confines of London, they made Shoolbred an overnight success.

In the 1880s the firm moved to larger premises. Imaginatively laid out, with detailed room schemes showing off the company’s latest furniture and textile designs, it became an unmitigated success.

Although James Shoolbred & Co specialised in furniture of the Aesthetic Movement they encompassed all the fashionable trends of the time, from the motifs and patterns of Japanese design in their antique marquetry furniture, to Art Nouveau and gothic influences in their antique desks and Victorian dining chairs.