It arrived!!!

On Thursday, our beautiful antique Bookcase arrived and we are so enjoying having it in our home. 

We found this at a local antique store, just a few days before we left for China.  We debated about buying it on the spot but finally decided to wait until we had returned from our trip and were actually moving into our new house.  It was a hard, hard wait!!

We sent it to a friend who refinishes furniture and he made a few cosmetic corrections to it, but it was in really good shape so there wasn’t much to be done.

He told us that it was made in the 1880’s, in the Victorian style, with the primary wood being Walnut and the secondary being Poplar.  He also said that the glass is in remarkable condition!!

He pointed out the handcrafted drawers, showing us the “scratch line” that was used to mark how far to dovetail the joints…..

As I was polishing and cleaning it, I was intrigued with the construction of the shelf units.  The edges are notched and specially made slats are inserted for the shelves to sit on….

The shelves are also notched in each corner to allow them to fit perfectly…..

It was fun to polish the unit and think of who else might have enjoyed it in the past 130 years!!

The plan is to bring some old dish sets home from my Mother’s house and use this as a display case for them.

But, even empty, it is a wonderful addition to our dining room!!!