Bookcase Biblio

With a vast inventory of beautiful furniture at 1stDibs, we’ve got just the bookcase biblio you’re looking for. Each bookcase biblio for sale was constructed with extraordinary care, often using metal, wood and oak. There are 1 variations of the antique or vintage bookcase biblio you’re looking for, while we also have 16 modern editions of this piece to choose from as well. There are many kinds of the bookcase biblio you’re looking for, from those produced as long ago as the 20th Century to those made as recently as the 21st Century. A bookcase biblio is a generally popular piece of furniture, but those created in mid-century modern styles are sought with frequency. Many designers have produced at least one well-made bookcase biblio over the years, but those crafted by Gubi, Mathieu Matégot and Stephane Ducatteau are often thought to be among the most beautiful.

A bookcase biblio can differ in price owing to various characteristics — the average selling price 1stDibs is $1,999, while the lowest priced sells for $599 and the highest can go for as much as $10,133.

Iconic Danish furniture and lighting manufacturer Gubi was founded in Copenhagen by designer-couple Lisbeth and Gubi Olsen in 1967. The brand is celebrated globally for its innovative chairs, lighting fixtures, mirrors, sofas and other furnishings and decor. 

The company began as a platform to manufacture the textiles and furniture designed by Lisbeth and Gubi. Soon, the business model broadened. While recent contemporary pieces manufactured by Gubi such as GamFratesi’s Beetle chair have become darlings of today’s interiors, the company is also widely known as a leader in reissuing exquisite Scandinavian and other mid-century modern furniture by a range of design legends. 

Swedish architect and interior designer Greta Magnusson Grossman — the first woman to receive a prize for furniture design from the Swedish Society of Industrial Design — emigrated to the United States and built 14 homes in Los Angeles in the postwar era that were inspired by the Case Study Houses. She furnished these homes with her own designs, and her impossibly sleek Grasshopper table lamps and floor lamps — created for Barker Bros. but today made by Gubi — were frequent fixtures in the interiors. Another Scandinavian architect and industrial designer, Louis Weisdorf designed the wildly popular Multi-Lite line of lighting fixtures, which were originally created during the early 1970s and reissued by Gubi in 2016.

Beyond lighting, Spanish designer Barbara Corsini created the distinctively geometric Pedrera coffee table during the mid-1950s that is now made by Gubi, while the Hungarian-born French master of postwar design, Mathieu Matégot, created the Tropique dining table and an elegant three-legged Nagasaki chair, both of which were reissued by the Danish brand. French furniture designer Pierre Paulin created the inviting, organically shaped Pacha lounge chair in 1975. This design yielded a loveseat and a sofa as well. All of these pieces were reissued by Gubi.

Since 2001, Gubi founders’ son, Jacob Olsen, has managed the company, and travels the world to find heirs to the iconic designers of yesteryear in order to secure permission to give their works a second life. 

On 1stDibs, find Gubi lighting, seating, tables and more. 

Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe vintage mid-century modern furniture. The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living.

ORIGINS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

• Emerged during the mid-20th century 
• Informed by European modernism, Bauhaus, International style, Scandinavian modernism and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture
• A heyday of innovation in postwar America 
• Experimentation with new ideas, new materials and new forms flourished in Scandinavia, Italy, the former Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in Europe

CHARACTERISTICS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

• Simplicity, organic forms, clean lines  
• A blend of neutral and bold Pop art colors 
• Use of natural and man-made materials — alluring woods such as teak, rosewood and oak; steel, fiberglass and molded plywood 
• Light-filled spaces with colorful upholstery 
• Glass walls and an emphasis on the outdoors 
• Promotion of functionality

MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW

• Charles and Ray Eames
• Eero Saarinen
• Milo Baughman
• Florence Knoll
• Harry Bertoia 
• Isamu Noguchi 
• George Nelson 
• Danish modernists Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen, whose emphasis on natural materials and craftsmanship influenced American designers and vice versa

ICONIC MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS

• Eames lounge chair
• Nelson daybed
• Florence Knoll sofa
• Egg chair
• Womb chair
• Noguchi coffee table
• Barcelona chair

VINTAGE MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS

The mid-century modern era saw leagues of postwar American architects and designers animated by new ideas and new technology. The lean, functionalist International-style architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the 1930s by Philip Johnson and others. New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale in open-plan houses with long walls of glass.

Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair, respectively. 

Architect, writer and designer George Nelson created with his team shades for the Bubble lamp using a new translucent polymer skin and, as design director at Herman Miller, recruited the Eameses, Alexander Girard and others for projects at the legendary Michigan furniture manufacturer. 

Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts. Materials were repurposed too: The Danish-born designer Jens Risom created a line of chairs using surplus parachute straps for webbed seats and backrests.

The Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by legendary manufacturer Knoll, a chief influencer in the rise of modern design in the United States, thanks to the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneering architect and designer who made the firm a leader in its field. The seating that Knoll created for office spaces — as well as pieces designed by Florence initially for commercial clients — soon became desirable for the home.

As the demand for casual, uncluttered furnishings grew, more mid-century furniture designers caught the spirit.

Classically oriented creators such as Edward Wormley, house designer for Dunbar Inc., offered such pieces as the sinuous Listen to Me chaise; the British expatriate T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings switched gears, creating items such as the tiered, biomorphic Mesa table. There were Young Turks such as Paul McCobb, who designed holistic groups of sleek, blond wood furniture, and Milo Baughman, who espoused a West Coast aesthetic in minimalist teak dining tables and lushly upholstered chairs and sofas with angular steel frames.

As the collection of vintage mid-century modern chairs, dressers, coffee tables and other furniture for the living room, dining room, bedroom and elsewhere on 1stDibs demonstrates, this period saw one of the most delightful and dramatic flowerings of creativity in design history.

As long as curious people have collected stories, we have needed a place to stow them away and preserve them. When auction houses and book dealers proliferated by the late 17th century, the bibliophile was born. And, of course, as with any treasured objects, a book lover’s volumes were suddenly worthy of a luxurious display — enter the bookcase. Americans of means during the 19th century took to amassing art as well as rare books, and antique bookcases of the era, rife with hand-carved decorative accents and architectural motifs, were ideal for displaying their handsome leather-bound wares.

Although our favorite titles may change over the years, the functionality and beauty of their home within our home is timeless. Whether you proudly shelve your books in regal mahogany or behind glass cabinet doors, a bookcase — or perhaps more than one — is essential to creating a cozy nook for any book lover. Even those who don’t covet the perfect home library can benefit from an attractive display case, as bookcases can easily double as charming étagères. 

Contemporary and customizable options make it easier for you to find the perfect bookcase for your style and stacks. If you don’t wish to fill your storage piece so that your collection is snug within its confines, incorporate extra space to allow for additional displays and decorative objects. And by introducing a striking dark wood Art Deco bookcase or low-profile mid-century modern design by Paul McCobb into your living room, your signed first editions won’t be the only items making a statement. 

Find your dream bookcase on 1stDibs now.