Circa 1870 French Napoleon III Double Glazed Door Bibliotheque

Circa 1870s silver sifting ladle spoon, French. Classical laurel motif; swirled, pierced, gilded interior. Marked double struck & illegible. Likely 1st 950 standard - very soft metal...

Circa 1870 Old Paris porcelain cache pot with drip pan base, French. Charming Napoleon III period piece decorated with Italianate landscape s...

3rd quarter 19th century pair of French tole & iron single beds. Napoleon III period. Superb faux bois walnut & satinwood paintwork on the head & foot boards inlaid with mother of pe...

Circa 1870 French Louis XVI style side chair. Elegant, molded walnut frame carries through in design to the legs, aprons & back. Car...

An antique French tambour door bookcase, made of solid mahogany wood. It's made in France, at the the end of the Napoleon III period, 1860-1870. ...

A handsome and very well crafted English break-front bookcase or bibliotheque in solid mahogany by S.E. & R. Johnson of Warrington, England, circa 1870. Features six doors with glass panels in the upper section over a base with ten drawers on each side, flanking a middle section consisting of three doors with wooden panels. There are two adjustable shelves in each of the three upper sections, with a total of ten interior drawers. Original tear-drop pulls on doors turn to release a lever allowing the doors to be opened with the pulls as well as locked, a most unusual and attractive feature. All of the hardware is original to the bookcase including the locks. Comes with working locks and keys. Measurements: 13' 8 1/2" long x 21 1/2" - 27 1/2" deep x 101" high (8'5" high) All of the drawers are stamped with the cabinetmaker's stamp, "S.E. & R. (Ralph) Johnson, Warrington". This fine bookcase was manufactured prior to 1880 in Warrington in Cheshire, England. While information is scant, it would seem that S. E. would have been Ralph's father's workshop listed at 78 Bridge Street in Warrington, England, circa 1878. Ralph would have likely been an apprentice at that time. He opened his own workshop, presumably when his father retired. By the Edwardian period, Ralph had become a cabinet maker of some renown. Drawer locks are original and stamped "Chance Son & Co. W Chance, Son, & Co" and are listed in the 1850s directories as "Merchants and Factors" in Birmingham, England. They would have been middlemen having various merchandise made for them, primarily for export to North America. The type of locks employed in this bookcase is a lever combination lock. In the cabinet lock trade, lever locks became available circa 1855 and superseded the earlier tumbler and back-spring locks. Some points about the breakfront to note are that it is made entirely out of solid mahogany which is unusual; there are no veneers. Even the drawer sides, backs and bottoms are made of mahogany. The interior wood, i.e., the back and the insides of the cabinet is pine. One of the great features is that the upper door hardware has a dead latch that operates with the tear drop pull. You can lock the doors, but if you don't want to lock them, you can use the tear drop pull to operate the dead latch to open and close by turning it to the right. There are 20 exterior drawers and 8 interior drawers. Lower cabinets each have 1 fixed shelf; upper cabinets have 2 adjustable shelves each. There are enough extra original cast iron shelf...

Exceptional French Napoleon III mahogany bookcase with ormolu trim and hardware, circa 1850. Made by hand to the highest level of craftsmanship – For those of you who appreciate fine...

An unusual double bibliothèque from southwest France, this impressive bookcase was hand-carved from oak, circa 1800. Several layers of molding adorn the crown, including a deep cavet...