Charles Bevan for Marsh, Jones and Cribb – Aesthetic Movement Oak Bookcase
£14,500
Width: 79.53 in (202 cm)
Depth: 17.8 in (45.2 cm)
1860-1869
About this piece
By Charles Bevan for Marsh, Jones and Cribb, an oak and burr oak bookcase aligned to the Aesthetic Movement (1860–1890). The design presents Bevan’s characteristic structural clarity combined with sharply defined carved ornament, positioned across a three-part façade with adjustable shelving.
The upper front carries a continuous row of projecting carved rosettes, set above deeply worked carved brackets. Each of the flanking doors is decorated with a pair of carved florets framed within a field of alternating ebonised and plain oak squares that evoke Japanese basket weave. Centrally placed on each door is an oval relief carving of remarkable execution, one portraying a boy reading and the other a girl writing in a journal with a quill, accompanied by a hovering butterfly. The doors open to reveal adjustable shelving, and the central section presents an open bookcase with further adjustable shelves. Below, a drop front cabinet door retains its original decorative brass fittings, which match the gilded brass hinges and plates applied throughout.
The structure retains the original Marsh and Jones Late Kendal paper label on the reverse. The period, configuration and decorative programme correspond to furniture designed by Bevan for the industrialist Titus Salt junior. Marsh and Jones had already undertaken a major commission for his father, Titus Salt, the founder of Saltaire, supplying furniture for the marriage of Salt’s son in March 1865 and installing it at Baildon Lodge. That group, designed by Bevan, is partially preserved in the collections of Leeds Museums at Lotherton Hall, Yorkshire. A further large commission, executed for Titus Salt junior at Milner Field in 1866, provides a plausible context for this bookcase and reinforces the link between Bevan’s authorship and the firm’s output during this phase.
Bevan also permitted Marsh and Jones to produce the newly registered reclining armchair he designed, and an oak davenport inlaid with mixed woods is illustrated in Gere and Whiteway (1993), p. 113. The present bookcase, with its mixture of relief carving, geometric surface patterning and bold Aesthetic vocabulary, fully aligns with Bevan’s established oeuvre for the firm during the mid-1860s.
Side Compartments (Internal)
- Width: 49 cm
- Depth: 30.4 cm
- Height: 123 cm
Middle Shelving Compartment
- Height: 84.5 cm
- Width: 80.4 cm
- Depth: 31.4 cm
Bottom Compartment
- Height: 24.5 cm
- Width: 80.4 cm
- Depth: 30.4 cm
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