glazed bookcases

Pair of Glazed Bookcases

Designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852)

c.1860

Height 89" (226 cm); width 43" (109 cm); depth 15.5" (39 cm)

Oak with brass fittings, stamped Gillow; fittings marked Hart.

Appearing in the catalogue of an exhibition devoted to Pugin, this piece must have been made up later to his original design. Of the style of such pieces, Michael Whiteway writes, "It was ... with furniture that the greatest break with tradition occurred. Sometime around 1835 Pugin started to move away from the decorative Romantic Gothic style, a theatrical style without substance, and began to design a series of totally pared down structural designs...."

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