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Lot Essay
This neo-classical mahogany bookcase is in the manner of Sir Robert Smirke (d. 1867), an architect-designer in the vanguard of those responsible for transforming London in the first half of the 19th century, and by repute was at the British Museum until the late 20th century. Smirke is renowned for having designed the imposing King's Library in a new East wing of the British Museum in 1823, a dedicated space to house George III's magnificent collection of books and manuscripts, which had been offered by his son, George IV, to the nation. Described by a contemporary as a masterpiece and a commission that 'proved almost immune from criticism', Smirke was a dedicated Greek Revivalist, a style that can be seen in the rational simplicity of the present example (Graham Jefcoate, 'Most Curious, Splendid and Useful: the King's Library of George III', Enlightenment: discovering the world in the Eighteenth Century, London, 2003, p. 53). Although this bookcase is unlikely to be one from the King's Library as the latter were made of polished oak rather than mahogany, it is similarly ornamented to those situated between the windows of the gallery of the King's Library, which are framed with pilasters to make them appear like a vista of projecting aedicules or temple-fronts. Furthermore, Smirke was responsible for a number of other rooms at the museum intended to accommodate books or be used as reading rooms that were furnished with bookcases; the quadrangle that housed the new library was not completed until 1852. It is entirely feasible that this bookcase was removed from one of these additional rooms in 1998 when the principal portion of the library was transferred to the British Library's new St. Pancras building.