An Edwardian Oak Bookcase by Shapland and Petter in the Style of Edwin Lutyens

With carved shell crest, a pair of glazed doors enclosing adjustable shelving above a pair of cupboars, raised on a turned base. Brass lockplates with Shapland & Petter stamp, registration stamps to the reverse, the second image is reproduced from the S & P archive held at The Barnstaple and North Devon Museum.

An interesting and unusual bookcase in several ways. Firstly it is untypical of Shapland and Petter's work. The style, the shell carving and even the large size of the registration stamps on the reverse are either rare, or not found elsewhere. But the the brass locks are stamped and a record of the design eventually found, thank you to The Barnstaple and North Devon Museum, Longbridge, Barnstaple.

Unfortuanately there is no record of Edwin Lutyens designing for Shapland and Petter. This is unsurprising as he wasn't a commercial designer, but an architect who designed furniture specifically to work within the rooms and internal spaces of the houses he built.

Stylistically the bookcase, or at least eighty per cent of it, is typical of his reportoire. The early Georgian influences of the glazed domed doors, the geometric astragals and the panel doors below may be found in the case furniture at Marsh Court in Hampshire and elsewhere. The scale is also noteworthy. Despite building grand country houses often with huge oriel windows, his case furniture is generally more typically domestic in scale. Examples such as the double side bookcase offered at Doyles Important Furniture Sale, 26th January 2011, lot 406 ( 6 foot 8"), a double sided bookcase from Marsh Court offered at Sotheby's 'Paul Reeves-Best of British' sale 20 March 2008 was a mere 6 foot 4".

Lutyens worked on several projects in Devon and Cornwall. Castle Drogo aside, there was Little Court; The Pimple; two rows of cottages in the village of Milton Abbot and additions to Mothecombe House and Penheale Manor.

Could he have used the local and eminent firm of Shapland and Petter to make one of his designs? On balance I think there would

have been a record of the commission had Lutyens drawn up the design, particularly as there is a photograph, but it is interesting to speculate.