How many sections do these usually have?

Titles count units, and among the counted heights three, four, five and six sections all appear in numbers. Six section alone shows up in sixteen titles. The extremes are two units at one end and seven at the other. A single seven-section stack turns up in the archive, and so does a pair of seven-section oak cases.

What timbers were used?

Oak is nearly half of everything listed, at 248 titles. Mahogany is the clear second at 96. Walnut, including red walnut, appears only a handful of times, making it the rarest named timber in the category. Finish words like golden oak, light oak and dark oak are used to separate cases that are otherwise the same. An ebonised case and an inlaid one each surface once.

Why are some listed as Globe Wernicke style?

The stacking bookcase was a pattern the whole furniture trade made, not one firm's alone. Where no attribution is claimed, dealers write style, type, design or Globe Wernicke taste. Roughly one title in twenty-five is hedged as type, and more again as style. Rival stacking bookcases also appear under their own makers' names.

When were stacking bookcases made?

The dated field runs 1880 to 1940, with 386 listings carrying a clean year. The single 1880 title and the single 1940 title are the outer edges. Everything else crowds into 1900 to 1930. The 1920s account for 175 dated listings, more than the 1910s and 1900s together, and a further 91 are given only as Edwardian.

Are pairs of these bookcases common?

Pairs are a genuine sub-market rather than an oddity: 71 titles offer two cases, described as a pair, a matched pair or a very close pair. The archive also holds two separate sets of three matching oak cases. Pairs and sets cluster at the top of the range.

What unusual variants turn up?

Odd forms surface once each. A book trough, a secretaire version, a bureau bookcase, a corner sectional and a French haberdashery stacking case are all in the archive. More often the variation is a unit added to the stack, recorded in titles as with drawer to base or as a large cupboard and drawer to the bottom.

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Antique Globe Wernicke Bookcases

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A stacking bookcase built as separate glazed units, each with a door that lifts and slides back over the books, sold a section at a time so an office or library shelf could grow.