Object Description
For sale is a top quality George III mahogany breakfront bookcase. The top of the bookcase has flour glazed doors, each opening to reveal a fitted interior. The centre doors open to display various pigeon holes over several drawers. Each side door encloses two shelves, over two sliding trays, above two drawers. Below this, the base section has two ebony and mahogany cupboard doors to the centre, flanked by four mahogany lined, graduated drawers on either side. All of the drawers and cupboards are fitted with Bramah Locks, and the piece is in excellent condition having been refinished using traditional methods.
Bramah locks were designed by Joseph Bramah in 1784, a true innovator of the time. Bramah locks were renowned for their resistance to lock picking and tampering. Famously, the company had a “challenge lock” on the front of their shop from 1790. The lock had an inscription stating:
“The artist who can make an instrument that will pick or open this lock shall receive 200 guineas the moment it is produced.”
The challenge lock remained unpicked until the Great Exhibition of 1851, where Alfred Charles Hobbs, an American locksmith, picked the lock, managed to pick the lock after spending 51 hours trying to do so. This lock is still on display at Science Museum in London.
Measures: Width 71.75″, depth 26.5″, height 77.75″.