19th Century Blackwood Secretaire Bookcase
You must be a subscriber, and be logged in to view price and dealer details.
Subscribe Now to view actual auction price for this item
When you subscribe, you have the option of setting the currency in which to display prices to $Au, $US, $NZ or Stg.
- Cornice - The upper section of a high piece of furniture such as a bookcase, wardrobe or cabinet that sits immediately on the main structure. The cornice is usually decorated with a variety of architectural mouldings, worked either with a moulding plane or, from the later 19th century, by machine. The front and side of the cornice are mitred together, strengthened by glue blocks, and the back is generally a simple dovetailed rail to hold the structure together. Cornices are generally, though not always, fitted separately to the piece and are held in place either by screws sunk into the top board or by wooden corner blocks. A pediment may sit above the cornice, but sometimes the terms cornice and pediment are used interchangeably.
- Bracket Feet - On bracket feet the corner edge is square and joined by a mitre to its partner on the opposite angle. The inner edge is usually shaped or scalloped. Bracket feet were first introduced in the early 18th century and used until c. 1830 and are found on carcase furniture such as chests, cabinets, bookcases and bureaux.
Ogee bracket feet, a variation on straight bracket feet, have the outside edge forming an "S" shaped curve with the top bulging outward and the bottom turning inward.
On splayed bracket feet, the exterior edge curves outward. - Blackwood - One of the best known and most widely used Australian timbers, blackwood (acacia melanoxylon), is a member of the Acacia (wattle) family and grows in eastern Australia from about Adelaide in South Australia, as far north as Cairns in Queensland.
The largest, straightest and tallest trees come from the wet forest and swamps of north-west Tasmania where it is grown commercially.
Blackwood timber colours range across a wide spectrum, from a very pale honey colour through to a dark chocolate with streaks of red tinge.
The hardwood timber has been commonly used in the production of furniture, flooring, and musical instruments in Australia from the late 19th century. However, the straight grain timber is not the most prized or valuable, that honour falls to blackwood with a wavy, fiddleback pattern, which is used both in the solid and as a veneer. Fiddleback was only used on the finest examples of furniture.
This item has been included into following indexes:
-
bookcases, function or type
- pairs 197
- secretaire 261
- bookcases, material - blackwood 38
Visually similar items
A late Regency mahogany secretaire bookcase, the tapered cornice above glazed doors with horizontal glazing bars, the lower section with secretaire drawer, enclosing fitted drawers and pigeon, above a pair of panel doors on plinth. 223 cm high, 108 cm wide
A Victorian mahogany bookcase, 19th century, with an extended cornice above twin glazed doors with applied carved embellishments to the crests, the extended base with bullnose edging, frieze drawers and lower similarly embellished cupboards flanked by stil
A Victorian cedar bookcase, circa 1880, of elevated form with a shaped pediment above two glazed doors, two ogee form frieze drawers with lower cupboards and upon a plinth base, with shelving to upper and lower sections and corbel embellishments. Height 22
A late 19th century cedar bookcase with two glass and two diagonal panel doors and drawers. Height 240 cm. Width 145 cm