Object Description
This is a high quality antique Victorian Coromandel and porcelain adjustable self closing book slide, by Betjemann’s, 19th Century and circa 1870 in date.
It is made of stunnning coromandel and features Wedgwood Jasper Ware cameo panels depicting roman emperors in profile and wonderfully decorated with stupendous gilt brass filigree mounts.
It was made by the renowned maker of patented mechanisms, Betjemann’s of Pentonville Road, London, and bears their engraved plaque name and patent number No 3764.
The sides bear the following engraving:
SELF CLOSING BOOK SLIDE/ No 3764/ BETJEMANN’S PATENT
It also bears a brass plaque engraved for the retailer:
HALSTAFF & HANNERFORD 228 Regent St LONDON
It is a delightful object which will display your favourite books beautifully.
Condition:
In excellent condition, please see photos for confirmation.
Dimensions in cm:
Height 9 x Width 42 x Depth 18.2 – Closed
Height 21 x Width 65 x Depth 18.2 – Open
Dimensions in inches:
Height 3 inches x Width 1 foot, 4 inches x Depth 7 inches – Closed
Height 8 inches x Width 2 foot, 2 inches x Depth 7 inches – Open
Betjemann & Sons
From 1859, based at 36-40 Pentonville Road, London, George Betjemann amd his two sons took the art of cabinet, box and book slide making to new heights. They specialised in designs for operating the way that different compartments in vanity boxes opened and also the sprung system for book slides.
Coromandel wood or Calamander wood
is a valuable wood from India, Sri Lanka and South East Asia. It is of a hazel-brown color, with black stripes (or the other way about), very heavy and hard. It is also known as Macassar Ebony or variegated ebony and is closely related to genuine ebony, but is obtained from different species in the same genus; one of these is Diospyros quaesita Thwaites, from Sri Lanka. The name Calamander comes from the local sinhalese name, ‘kalu-medhiriya’, which means dark chamber; referring to the characteristic ebony black wood.
Coromandel wood has been logged to extinction over the last 2 to 3 hundred years and is no longer available for new work in any quantity. Furniture in coromandel is so expensive and so well looked after that even recycling it is an unlikely source. A substitute, Macassar Ebony, has similar characteristics and to the untrained eye is nearly the same but it lacks the depth of colour seen in genuine Coromandel.
Our reference: A3203