ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN-GEORGES HORNIG, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

An almost identical free-standing 'island' bookcase or etagère is in the Bettine, Lady Abingdon Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum. It is inscribed in pencil on the wooden backing to the slab 'Hornig, ébéniste rue Charonne no. 7'. Both the latter and the two examples below feature a marble slab. That Hornig is not recorded as making any other variety of furniture, it is tempting to surmise that he specialised in this form and thus may have designed and made bookcases with subtle refinements, explaining the presence of a leather top in the present example (S. Medlam, The Bettine, Lady Abingdon Collection, London, 1996, F.3, fig. 23, p. 47).
A closely related ormolu-mounted rosewood open bookstand was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 29 March 1979, lot 72 and another was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 5 March 2008, lot 159 (£28,100).