A Classical Bookcase

Boston
1819-24
Isaac Vose & Son

With the discovery of this bookcase, another entry is added to the rather small list of labeled furniture by Isaac Vose. The top left drawer of the base to the bookcase reveals the stenciled label of Isaac Vose & Son. This is the only label design used by the firm during the years 1819-24. The label reads: Isaac Vose & Son / Cabinet, Chair & / Furniture Warehouse / Boston. Another bookcase attributed to Vose is referenced and illustrated in the Robert D. Mussey Jr. and Clark Pearce book Rather Elegant Than Showy: The Classical Furniture of Isaac Vose, Fig. 163, p. 147.

The upper doors of the bookcase are neatly executed and seem to retain all of the original glass. A fine reeded brass astragal is attached to one of the doors. An overhanging flattened cornice with an attached filet molding tops the bookcase.

The drawer fronts and doors of the base of the bookcase are veneered in superbly  figured mahogany. Pairs of smaller graduated drawers with fine lion’s head pulls flank the pullout writing drawer. When the drawer is pulled out, a writing surface folds down and is covered in a wool baize. Three pairs of small drawers flank four open sections. The drawer construction displays Vose’s shop’s careful attention to details with their tiny precise dovetails and fine gilt-lacquered pulls. Below the writing surface are three graduated drawers. A pair of doors veneered in figured mahogany open to offer additional storage. Elegant pilasters frame the doors and they are topped with delicate carving likely executed by the master carver Thomas Wightman. The entire case is raised on large turned feet.

Books were rare at this time. Anyone possessing a bookcase such as this would been widely read and would have the means to own a significant library as this piece suggests.

Mahogany, (Secondary woods: pine, poplar)
Height: 96” Width: 60” Depth: 22”
C1099
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