bookcase in sustainable, solid, local english oak (with a nod to josef hoffmann)

i made this bookcase in 2002 and the customer just called me back to make a home office having down-sized. this was one of the few pieces of furniture she chose to take with her. proud dad moment!

the curves in the top and bottom rails are so tight that they defied steam-bending and needed to be turned and jointed. nearly 20 years on and the joints are still perfectly tight.

when designing the bookcase for this particular customer, we both kept coming back to an image of an etagere by josef hoffmann in the weiner werkstatte style. in the end, i decided it was so perfect for that location and that customer that i just copied it, breaking my golden rule to always produce new and unique work. with all due respect to josef.

detail showing the lovely silvergrain (or “figure”), an almost holographic effect where the oak’s medullary rays strike the cut surface at an oblique angle.