My friend recently bought this bookcase at a garage sale, can anyone help me ID it for him? It seems to be a period piece. It has an excellent original finish that really shows of it's flaks. The hardware seems to be made out of heavy gage copper. If anyone has information on this, please let me know.

Thanks Again,
Mark & Melissa

Nice pick up!

I've seen a single door bookcase with similar construction by Lifetime.



and a 2-door,



and a variant with wood pulls on the drawers,



Do you have pics with detail of the hardware and construction?

Again, very nice.

The high number of mullions would lead me to believe it was Lifetime as well. This reminds me I should get out to garage sales more often...

Dano

Definitely a Lifetime bookcase - it is pictured in the catalog reprint (Cloister Styles, not Puritan - available from Turn of the Century Editions). Great garage sale find!!!

I have five of these cases (and wish my little bungalow had room for more): two of the triple door, two of the single door, and one of the double door (but it is missing the doors). I think I currently own the case in the first picture posted by KenF(with the grey background).

There was considerable variation in these cases; some had pulls cast to look like they were hammered, some had wooden knobs, and some had the simple bail handles shown in the second picture. I have seen double door model with and without through tenons (probably fake, like on the Charles Stickley chairs & settees with massive front legs). I have seen what appears to be original finish in light, a nice nut brown, and a very dark ebonized type finish.

All of my cases have adjustable shelves and the shelves are stamped (on the back or side edge) with the model number of the case.

KenF, can you tell me where the single-door with wooden knobs in your third picture is? The single door model with wood knobs is particularly attractive!

I'll try to link to pics of some of my cases...




Triple door.


Single door in background.


Double door (missing the doors).


-- Joe

I will have better pics of this bookcase soon. I totaly forgot that I posted this to the forum for my friend. I'll have to go over there and take some pics myself. After looking around for the mark on this thing, we finally found it in the middle drawer and it is indeed Lifetime. It has the heavy pulls not the round ones.

I've been telling my friend that his pulls are made out of cast iron and not copper but he does not believe me. I googled cast Iron and they say a magnet will stick to cast iron, so we tried it and it would not stick. Did they cast things with copper? If anyone out there knows anything about this, please let us know.

Thanks,Mark

Hey Ken, those are nice bookcases, however the cats got in the way kinda...

Im kidding of course but I bet the bookcases look pretty good.

Dano

The Lifetime bookcase with the wood knobs is at a particular retail shop. This is not a plug for the shop, I just happened to see it here:

http://www.joseveragallery.com/furniture.htm#lifetime

Hey Mark:

I have a Lifetime library table and it has copper hardware. I'm having to have a piece reproduced and it's definitely copper.

Bill

Thanks alot Bill- If you don't mind me asking, who's reproducing it?

It's a local metal worker. I didn't need the pull. I just needed a hammered copper back plate. So it was a pretty easy repro (for somebody who knows what they are doing).

Bill