{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O78943"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78943/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AM6308/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AM6308/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AM6308","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM6310","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM6309","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU2385","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU2386","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB4633","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB4704","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JR9385","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O78943/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O78943","accessionNumber":"W.12:1 to 11-1927","objectType":"Bookcase","titles":[{"title":"Dyrham Bookcase","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"Object Type
For convenience the bookcase is constructed in four sections: the lower cupboard with its cornice, the two vertical halves of the upper cupboard (each with a glazed door), and finally the upper cornice. The lower cornice is carved with acanthus leaves, petals and husks above a running pattern of roses. The upper cornice has a cavetto, or concave, frieze carved with acanthus foliage above a guilloche moulding. Each of the upper cupboard units contains three adjustable shelves. The glass panes in the doors are original. The bun feet are later replacements.
People
The bookcase was one of a pair made for William Blathwayt, who was Secretary of War to William III from 1683 to 1704. His uncle, Thomas Povey, was a friend of the diarist Samuel Pepys and Blathwayt may have seen Pepys's library in Buckingham Street, London. It had twelve similar oak bookcases, which were made from 1666 onwards as required. These are now at Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Place
Blathwayt acquired the Dyrham estate through his marriage in 1686 to the heiress Mary Wynter. In the 1690s he rebuilt west and east fronts, to designs by the architects Samuel Hauduroy and William Talman. The fine woodwork was supplied by London joiners. Thomas Hunter, of the Angel, Piccadilly, who made the sash windows, may have supplied these bookcases.
","physicalDescription":"The bookcase is in six principal elements: a base section, two upper sections, two glazed doors seven panes high (each door with twenty-one panes set within moulded bars) and a cornice. The cornice oversails a cavetto frieze carved with upright acanthus over a guilloche. Most of the timber is quarter-sawn, through the front plank of the PL upper side and the back plank of the PR side are of straight-sawn timber. There are six adjustable shelves to the upper section. There are two modern keys.\r\n\r\nBase: The lower section projects and is divided from the upper by two orders of carved mouldings; acanthus leaves, petals an husks above a running rosaced pattern. Some of the leaves and petals are recognisable as the heart-shaped violet leaf and the strawberry shape of the wood anenome. Each lower door, glazed with nine panes, and framed in sunk stiles, is now hung on a pair of hinges (what is likely to be tinning), with a central oak muntin (replaced). Along the top, the lower moulding forms the top rail of each door, and on both doors, the inner face of the stile (hinge side) shows repairs to a full height groove, indicating that both doors were originally panels that slid vertically (as with the Pepys bookcases), and were converted to hinged doors, apparently soon after construction. \n\nThe doors open ‘through’ the cornice of this section. Random tack holes on the inside of the doors suggest that at some time they were lined with fabric. The two doors of this tier lock separately. Inside the PR door there is a brass turn-button, not original. \n\nThere is clear evidence of a massive carrying handle on each side, with two holes on each side and the marks on the wood suggesting loop handles with knotted centrepieces, these with double lines incised in the centre. The circular backplates for each have left serrated or gadrooned edge marks. \n\nThe bun feet are not original. The ‘pegs’ show the carcase, and each shows 3 holes from the headstock of the lathe (it is more common for these to be round). The feet show a reddish varnish which does not match the rest of the piece. They show double lines around their circumference (this was quite a common form of decoration).\r\n\r\nCupboards: The inner sides of both the upper sections are grooved in the solid to form ladders for three shelves in each section. The two cupboards sit together within a welled section on the top of the base. Two hole in the middle of the upper section of each unit were probably made to hold the two sections together with wire and toggles. There are also pairs of holes on the outer sides of the two units representing another attempt to make the bookcases more stable. Sapwood is visible inside the PL side, where two planks have been joined. The dove-tailed hinges for the doors (shaped so that they cannot pull out easily even if the nails were to fail), are nailed from the outside on each side and the ends hammered over inside the carcase. A similar fixing is found on the doors.\r\n\r\nDoors: These can be lifted off when the hinge-pins are removed. The frames show pegged tenons throughout, and the main corner-joints of the doors are bridle-joints, i.e. with the tenons running right through. On the inside the pegs look as if they are set very far from the edge, but this is because of the ‘long and short’ shoulders of the tenons, the result of the chamfering of the outer faces of the frame. On the inside of the doors random tack holes suggest that the doors were at some time lined with fabric. The doors on both tiers show the outer half-round moulding on the outside to be a plant. The top and bottom bolts on the PL door of the upper section appear to be original nails, hammered into the endgrain. On the leading edge of the PR door the visibility of the tenons suggests that the mouldings were worked after the door had been framed up. Above the lock plate on the PR door is an iron lever catch, originally sprung, which hooks under a catch on the front face of the carcase.\r\n\r\nShelves: The ladders for the shelves are cut in the solid. One shelf on each side shows two swivelling iron hooks, which can locate in eyes set in the sides. When this is done the whole piece is pulled into greater rigidity. (Note: it is desirable that the one missing eye on the PR side should be replaced and the PR shelf properly located.) There are two other loose shelves, which may be replacements, as there are differences in the cutting of the nosing on the front edge.\r\n\r\nCornice: [full description required]. The top is flat and consists of two deal boards edged by mitred mouldings (and stained or varnished).\r\n\r\n\r\nRepairs and Alterations (see above)\r\nThe condition upon acquisition was described as 'the bookcase has been varnished: the drop handles, lock plates and feet are modern'.\r\n\n-The side walls have warped, and bulge outwards.\r\n-The bun feet with reddish varnish are replacements.\n-The lower doors converted from sliding panels to side hinging, and the central muntin replaced.\r\n-The locks on both levels are recent replacements, marked ‘SECURE LEVER’. On the inside of the PL upper door, just above the lock, is a filled section. This should be recessed to hold the spring lever fitment by which the PR door is held closed and the filling of the recess has meant that the lever has been bent downwards.\r\n-The lower hinge on the upper PR door is set within an overly large recess which is filled with putty. This matches the putty holding the glass into the doors and may have been done at the time of making.\r\n-Drop handles on the upper doors are missing. On the lower doors the handle on the PR is modern, but that on the PL is probably original. This was loose at inspection and has been fixed, using one brass nut which was found inside the upper tier.\r\n-The lower edge of the PL door is chamfered, perhaps planed because of binding at some time.\r\n-There are patches of dark staining on the outside of the PR door, particularly at the joints.\r\n-There are patches of dark staining inside the PL carcase section.\r\n-There are two loose shelves, which may be replacements, as there are differences in the cutting of the nosing on the front edge.\r\n\r\nMarks\r\n‘Top Right’ in chalk on the PL door inside face.\r\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Thomas Hunter, of the Angel, Piccadilly, who made the sash windows at Dyrham Park, is a possible candidate to have supplied these bookcases."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"},{"text":"glass","id":"AAT10797"},{"text":"iron","id":"AAT11002"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oak and deal, with original crown glass and iron fittings","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"},{"text":"Books","id":"THES48986"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2006AM6308","2006AM6310","2006AM6309","2017JU2385","2017JU2386","2017KB4633","2017KB4704","2017JR9385"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"56E (VA)","id":"THES49241"},"free":"","case":"PL2","shelf":"","box":"1"},{"current":{"text":"56E (VA)","id":"THES49241"},"free":"","case":"PL2","shelf":"","box":"1"},{"current":{"text":"56E (VA)","id":"THES49241"},"free":"","case":"PL2","shelf":"","box":"1"},{"current":{"text":"56E (VA)","id":"THES49241"},"free":"","case":"PL2","shelf":"","box":"1"},{"current":{"text":"56E (VA)","id":"THES49241"},"free":"","case":"PL2","shelf":"","box":"1"},{"current":{"text":"56E (VA)","id":"THES49241"},"free":"","case":"PL2","shelf":"","box":"1"},{"current":{"text":"56E (VA)","id":"THES49241"},"free":"","case":"PL2","shelf":"","box":"1"},{"current":{"text":"56E (VA)","id":"THES49241"},"free":"","case":"PL2","shelf":"","box":"1"},{"current":{"text":"56E (VA)","id":"THES49241"},"free":"","case":"PL2","shelf":"","box":"1"},{"current":{"text":"56E (VA)","id":"THES49241"},"free":"","case":"PL2","shelf":"","box":"1"},{"current":{"text":"FWK3","id":"THES49462"},"free":"","case":"KEYS","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Bookcase cornice","id":""}],[{"text":"Bookcase carcase","id":""}],[{"text":"Bookcase carcase","id":""}],[{"text":"Door","id":""}],[{"text":"Door","id":""}],[{"text":"Bookcase base","id":""}],[{"text":"Shelf","id":""}],[{"text":"Shelf","id":""}],[{"text":"Shelf","id":""}],[{"text":"Shelf","id":""}],[{"text":"keys","id":"x47941"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1695","earliest":"1690-01-01","latest":"1699-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"247.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"145.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"54","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions checked: Measured; 03/03/1999 by T.Hayes","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Purchased for £1,000 from Robert W. Blaythwayt Esq, Dyrham Park; funds for the purchase from the Captain H B Murray bequest (Registered Papers RP. 27/1420). \nCondition at acquisition: \"the bookcase has been varnished: the drop handles, lock plates and feet are modern\".\n\nMade for the library at Dyrham Park, South Gloucestershire. Probably made in London for William Blathwayt (possibly born in 1649, died at Dyrham Park, South Gloucestershire, 1717). The Dyrham bookcases are first recorded there in the inventory of 1703 as 'Two Glass Presses with Books'.\r\n\nIn June 1927 a copy of this bookcase was made by Mallett and Son, The Octagon, Bath, for Dyrham.\n\nV&A Display History\nVarious book bindings were exhibited inside the bookcase from c1970 to 1992.\r\n","historicalContext":"Related Bookcases (see also R. W. Symonds' two articles (1930)\r\n\r\nTwelve precursor bookcases made for Samuel Pepys' personal library in Buckingham Street, London, from 1666 onwards as required, by Sympson the Joyner (fl. 1660-c.1700). Now at Magdalene College, Cambridge. \r\n\r\nC.1695 A pair to the V&A bookcase, made for William Blathwayt, for Dyrham Park. \r\n\r\nC.1700 Three similar bookcases with sliding sashes (a pair and a singleton constructed as a single carcase) for Charles Sergison, at Cuckfield Park, Sussex until the 20th century. One illustrated in Country Life, 21 November 1931 (vol. 70, no. 1818), p. xxx, 'A Bookcase from Cuckfield Park'. This piece was at that time held by Partridge's, Bond Street. The short notice notes that Charles Sergison, who bought Cuckfield Park, Sussex (from which this bookcase was said to have come) in 1691, 'knew Samuel Pepys and his young brother John. Sergison had entered the service of the crown as a dockyard clerk in 1671 and four years later he became clerk to the Clerk of the Acts, whose office was then held jointly by Thomas Hayles and John Pepys, a younger brother of the diarist. From 1689 Sergison was Clerk of the Acts for thirty years, for the most part single-handed, and won the highest opinion of the several administrations with whom he acted. The emoluments of the office were large, though rather by perquisites and fees than by pay, and Sergison was able to house himself and his collection of ship models in dignified comfort.' The notice records that 'The glazed section of the lower stage slides upwards, unlike the similar section of the Dyrham Park bookcase (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum), which is hinged.\r\n\r\nChristie’s 19 November 1981, lot 84, said to be one of the Sergisson bookcases.\r\n\r\nProperty of R. A. Lee, lent to Pepys Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1979 (no. 79), Burlington Magazine, December 1971, plate XLVI. With carrying handles but without an armorial shield. Described as ‘identical to No. 12’ in the Pepys set.\r\n\r\n\r\nModern reproductions and versions\r\n\r\n-Close copy of the Pepys model, ‘designed by’ R. W. Symonds and made (c.1920-30s) by H. H. Martyn & Co., as a ‘trophy cabinet’ for Lloyds Bank.\r\n-Copy of the V&A bookcase by Mallett and Son for Dyrham Park\r\n-Sotheby’s Belgravia, 13 December 1978, lot 226\r\n-Sotheby’s Belgravia, 4 July 1979, lot 221 (with solid lower doors)\r\n-Sotheby’s New York ‘a few weeks ago’ (Country Life, 5 July 1984, p. 11), a pair, Victorian’\r\n-A reproduction of a Dyrham bookcase was offered for sale by Ian G. Hastie, Salisbury, Wiltshire and advertised in Country Life 24 October 1985, supplement p. 140. It was claimed to be of the 19th century and to be based on the Pepys bookcases, but might be a reproduction of the 1930s, based on the V&A piece.\r\n-Sotheby’s London 28 November 2001, lot 333\r\n-Bonham’s, London, 24 January 2006, lot 276\r\n\r\nSee also the instructions for making a replica of the Dyrham bookcase in V.J. Taylor, The Construction of Period Country Furniture (1978), no. 6, pp. 85-90\r\n","briefDescription":"[*] Dyrham Bookcase","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Adamson G., “The Labor of Division: Cabinetmaking and the Production of Knowledge”, in Cook H.J. – Meyers A.R.W. – Smith P.H. (eds.), Ways of Making and Knowing: The Material Culture of Empirical Knowledge (Ann Arbor: 2014) 243–279, fig.8"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lenygon, Francis. 'Furniture in England 1660 - 1760', p. 152, fig. 235. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"TIPPING, H. Avray. 'English Homes', Country Life. Period IV, Vol. I, p. 360. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"R. W. Symonds 'The Pepys, Dyrham Park and Sergisson Bookcases', The Connoisseur, Vol. LXXXV, May 1930, pp. 275-285."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"R. W. Symonds 'More about the Pepys, Dyrham Park and Sergisson Bookcases', The Connoisseur, Vol. LXXXV, June 1930, pp. 353-360."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"E. F. Strange, 'Dyrham Park Bookcase and Mr Pepys', Old Furniture, March 1928, Vol III No. 10, p.170-175\n\nTHERE is no doubt that the book-case once at Dyrham Park, which was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum lasl: year, is one of the most interesting additions made for some time to the collections at South Kensington. On its merits it is an example of applied art which is entirely in consonance with the main purpose of the Museum - a purpose which has, some times, had to yield to the very natural temptation to secure objects of exceptional rarity or overelaboration of ornament. This is an example of good design, nice proportion, sound technique and practical utility. The leaders of the (too few) classes of students of cabinet-making who regularly work at the Museum will not hesitate to use it for the purposes of instruction.\tThe historical point of view is also worth consideration. The book-case as an article of domestic furniture made but a late appearance in England; and the collector should beware of examples purporting to date much earlier than the 18th century. The furniture of libraries, of institutions,\r\necclesiastical, collegiate or secular, is of course another matter; and it is germane to the subject of this note, briefly to mention the book-cases in the libraries of St. John's and Clare Colleges, Cambridge, both to be placed in the third decade of the 17th century and constructed more or less on architectural lines. Even the learned of the land seem hardly to have progressed far beyond the equipment in this respect of Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford with \"... at his bed's head/ Twenty bookes, clothed in black and red,\" and such literature as they possessed was probably stored on hanging shelves, such as can be seen in Durer's engraving of \"St. Jerome in his Cell\" or in the portrait of Lord Bacon by Wm. Marshall. So that while one would not wish to overstate the position in regard to the Dyrham Park book-case, it is certainly to be placed among the earliest examples of its kind in the history of English furniture. Even in 1711, a book-room in a private house was novel enough to attract the attention of Addison, who, in No. 37 of The Spectator, remarks that \"the very sound of a Lady's Library gave me a great curiosity to see it\" and provides us with a charming picture of the \"mixt kind of furniture,\" with the folios \"in a very noble Piece of Architecture,\" and the whole lavishly adorned with \"China ware,\" and completed with \"Counterfeit Books upon the upper Shelves.\" Our book-case indeed appears to be mentioned in the Dyrham Park Inventory of 1710, but its surroundings seem to have fallen far below the magnificence described by the essayist.\tThe inventory recapitulates the furnishing of \"The Library\" as follows:-\r\n3 pieces of Scarlet & Green Cheny Hangings \n6 Window Curtains and vallains of ye same\r\n2 Glass Presses wth Books\r\n2 Walnut Tree Tables & a pr. of Stands \nA Cabinet Scritoire\r\n6 Dutch Chairs & 6 worsted Damask Cushions\r\n18 Prints & 2 Landskips \nA glass over ye Chimney\r\nA Delf Flower pot in ye Chimney\n\r\nThe two \"Presses with Books\" are the only things of the sort noted in the very comprehensive list of objects in the house; and it is reasonable to conclude that the Museum specimen is one of them.\r\nBut the particular interest of it lies in the fact that in dimensions, material and design it is practically identical with the book-cases containing the library of Samuel Pepys, which with their contents as arranged by him were bequeathed to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where they are now preserved and can be seen. The details of this resemblance need not here be laboured; for comparison of our illustrations must easily establish the fact. The only substantial differences are that the lower doors of the Cambridge bookcases slide up instead of being hinged and the lower ends have frames of moulding and handles; the narrow panels at the front ends of the lower part also have moulding instead of being simply chamfered; and the bulbous feet are somewhat more flattened than those of the Museum press. These minor differences would probably suffice to indicate that the latter is not an estray from the original Pepys Library, were such demonstrations needed. But it may be stated here that such could not well be the case, inasmuch as Magdalene College certainly obtained possession of the whole contents of the Library, as completed by the immediate beneficiary, his nephew John Jackson, in accordance with the terms of the codicil to his will of 12 May, 1703. In that codicil, however, he directed that \"one or more new presses be provided for the convenient containing them soe as to be neither too much crowded nor Stand too loose.\" Such new presses, if made, would have been careful copies of those provided by Pepys himself and the bare possibility that the Museum example was a superfluous one should not be entirely ignored - though the most important difference in fitting, the construction of the doors of the lower cupboards, has no parallel in the Pepys Library as it now exists and this theory would, of course, destroy the identification of the press with the scanty entry in the Dyrham Park Inventory. We will deal below with another conjecture as to its origin, which is, at all events, more in accordance with the known facts.\n\r\nApart from the cares of his office and the endless attraction that the face of a pretty woman had for him, the interests that lay nearest to the heart of Samuel Pepys were in his books and his music. He was a great book-lover and treated his acquisitions well. On February 3rd, 1665, he sandwiches between two of his flirtations, a note of expenditure of £3 on rebinding some old books \"to make them suit with my study\"; but, he adds, \"it will be very handsome.\" By July 23rd, 1666, his accumulations had begun to worry him. \"And then comes Sympson, the Joyner; and he and I with great pains contriving presses to put my books up in, they now growing numerous, and lying one upon another on my chairs.\" This is the first mention of the presses; and gives us the name of the maker who, by the way, had already been employed by Pepys (on September 29th, 1663) \"to set up my wife's chimney-piece in her closet, which pleases me.\" On August 24th, 1666, \"Comes Sympson, to set up my other new presses for my books, to my most extraordinary satisfaction; so that I think it will be as noble a closet as any man hath; though, indeed, it would have been better to have a little more light.\" During the Great Fire, he sent his goods to Deptford by water; and when it was over, Sympson was again called upon to re-hang his pictures and other fine things. He himself \"and the boy\" worked till two o'clock in the morning setting up the books and he is heartily troubled at missing some of them. Sympson's last appearance in the Diary is in \r\n1668 (July 24th) when \"by water to St. James's having by the way shown Symson Sir W Coventry's chimney-pieces, in order to the making me one.\" This was finished and put up\" in our great chamber,\" on August 14th, \"which is very fine, but will cost a great deal of money, but it is not flung away.\"\n\r\nA suggestion has been made that the Dyrham Park book-case originally belonged to Thomas Povy, Treasurer to the Duke of York, with whom Pepys had frequent personal and official relations. Povy's house and its fine furniture are mentioned in terms of unstinted admiration by the Diarist - who characteristically refers to its owner elsewhere, as \"the simple Povy, of all the most ridiculous fool that ever I knew, to attend to business.\" Only a few days after, in May, 1664, he dines with the object of his abuse and records \"his room floored above with woods of several colours, like but above the best cabinet work I ever saw ...\this furniture of all sorts ...do surpass all that ever I did see of one man in all my life.\" Briefly, if there is any foundation for the story that Povy was the original owner of the Dyrham Park book-case, what is more likely than that Sympson may have been employed to copy it for Pepys, as he did, later, Sir W. Coventry's chimney-piece.\n\r\nHowever that may be, the library was completed and arranged in the room overlooking the river in York Buildings. The original catalogue contains two contemporary drawings of it, which by kind permission of the Master of Magdalene, we are privileged to reproduce. They show the room - looking in either direction - drawn with an engaging artlessness of perspective. Perhaps Pepys did them himself.\n\r\nIt only remains to thank the Master of Magdalene for the facilities afforded for the examination and photographing of the subjects of our illustrations, and Mr. J. Charrington for valuable advice and assistance. It may be noted also that one of the Pepys book-cases has recently been very carefully reproduced for a private collector.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Pepys Exhibition catalogue (NPG, 1987)\n\nBookcase\r\nEnglish, about 1675\r\noak, partly carved, with glazed doors\r\nVictoria and Albert Museum W12-1927\n\r\nOne of a pair of bookcases from Dyrham park, Gloucestershire (where the other one remains). The design is closely related to a set of 12 bookcases now at Magdalene college, Cambridge which were made for Samuel Pepys. On July 23 1666 he recorded in his diary ‘… and then comes Sympson, the Joyner; And he and I with great pains contriving presses to put my books up in: they now growing numerous, and lying one upon another on my chairs…’ On August 24 he and Sympson spent the day setting up and filling the presses ‘to my most extraordinary satisfaction’. Some of the bookcases, which differ slightly in their design, were added later as his library expanded. The two Dyrham bookcases were made for William Blathwayt, secretary of war 1683 – 1704 and a nephew of Pepys’s friend and colleague Thomas Povey. They are very similar to, though not identical to, the Pepys bookcases and were perhaps also made by Sympson. Other bookcases of a late 17th century date which were obviously influenced by Pepys’s prototypes survive. Such bookcases formed a practical and secure solution to the problem of book storage as private libraries increased in number and size.\r\n","date":{"text":"1987","earliest":"1987-01-01","latest":"1987-12-31"}},{"text":"BOOKCASE\r\nEnglish; about 1695\r\nOak, carved with acanthus and guilloche mouldings and with glazed doors\r\nW. 12-1927\r\n\r\nMade for William Blathwayt, Secretary of War 1683-1704, for the library at Dryham Park, Avon, where its pair remains. \r\nThis is the earliest type of domestic free standing bookcase to survive and is very similar to those ordered by Samuel Pepys from 'Sympson, the Joyner' in 1666 for the library of his London House (now at Magdalene College, Cambridge). The design, with its strong architectural features, is geometrically based and the glazing was inspired by the sash window which was introduced in England and Holland about this time. ","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}},{"text":"BOOKCASE\r\nOak, partly carved with glazed doors. \r\nENGLISH; about 1675\r\n\r\nThis bookcase, which came from Dryham Park, Gloucestershire, resembles those in the Pepys Library in Magdelene College, Cambridge, which was ordered in 1666 from 'Sympson The Joiner'. ","date":{"text":"1927","earliest":"1927-01-01","latest":"1927-12-31"}},{"text":"British Galleries:\nThe earliest known free-standing bookcase was made for the writer Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) in 1666. His library is shown in the drawings illustrated. This example is almost identical in construction, with four sections for easy assembly and adjustable shelves for books of different sizes. The glass doors are set with small panes like those supplied for the newly fashionable sash windows.","date":{"text":"27/03/2003","earliest":"2003-03-27","latest":"2003-03-27"}}],"partNumbers":["W.12:1-1927","W.12:2-1927","W.12:3-1927","W.12:4-1927","W.12:5-1927","W.12:6-1927","W.12:7-1927","W.12:8-1927","W.12:9-1927","W.12:10-1927","W.12:11-1927"],"accessionNumberNum":"12","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1927,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Bookcase cornice","Bookcase carcase [1]","Bookcase carcase [2]","Door [1]","Door [2]","Bookcase base","Shelf [1]","Shelf [2]","Shelf [3]","Shelf [4]","key"],"assets":["2019LN0488","2019LN0489","2019LN0733","2019LN1137","2019LN1141","2019LN1144","2019LN1355","2019LN1542","2019LN1998","2019LN2740","2019LN2970","2019LR2661","2019LP8491","2019LP7947","2019LP7468","2019LP1602","2019LR6716","2019LR6082","2019LR6080","2019LR5642","2019LR5209","2019LR4972","2019LU5481","2019LU5223","2019LU5222","2019LT9253","2019LT8741","2019LV7366","2019LV7192","2019LV7134","2019LV6486","2019LV6111","2019LV5548"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-19","recordCreationDate":"2003-03-27","availableToBook":false}}