Chippendale Glazed Bookcase with Carved Frieze

• Frieze - An architectural term denoting the flat, shaped or convex horizontal surface of furniture, between the architrave and the cornice, usually found on a cabinet or bookcase, or on desks and tables where it may include drawers, the area between the top and the legs. In ceramics, the term refers to the banding, of usually a repeating pattern, on the rims of plates and vases.
• Astragal / Glazing Bars - An astragal, bead or glazing bar is the term used to describe the wooden strips that divide the glass in a cabinet into sections. However it can also refer to the narrow beading on a multi-door cabinet or bookcase that covers the gap between the doors, when they are closed. The astragal is usually attached to the inner stile of the left-hand door (or the right hand as you look at it).
• Glazing Bars - Thin astragal mouldings, almost always of timber, behind which glass panes in bookcases, china cabinets, kitchen dressers, and so on are fixed. The glass is either puttied in or held by thin beads. Old hand-made glass should show imperfections, such as bubbles and ridges when looked at obliquely against the light, something which is not found in modem factory-made glass. The joints of the glazing bars should always be neatly mitred.
  
  A cheap shortcut is to apply false glazing bars over a single pane of glass, and this indicates either an item of modern manufacture, or a later conversion, where the panelled door of a press or wardrobe has had a glass front fitted, and the article turned into a 'bookcase'.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• bookcases, period - Victorian 186
• other furniture - Chippendale style 181