Macey Bookcase

[panamag8or]

I rescued this from my Grandfather's garage. It is a Macey sectional barrister bookcase, model 1213. I'm not sure of the age, but there is an inscription (in pencil) on the base that reads:
Hoffman 9-12
I'm not sure if that is a date, or just an inspector number, but it was written twice, on either side.

I apologize for the floor, but I am in the midst of ripping up the nasty '70's shag carpet throughout the house.

You can't really tell from the pic, but the bottoms of both front legs are worn down, most likely from decades of being bumped by a vacuum cleaner.

I also found a newer Hale case, pictures to follow.

 

[Feraud]

Beautiful! My wife and I were eyeballing one in a vintage shop some time ago.

 

[panamag8or]

Here is the Hale case. I think it is from the '70's or '80's. Notice that the knobs on the bottom unit are offset. I'm guessing that is why it never sold. I also have no clue where the keys are for the bottom, so it is locked. I will contact Hale, and see if they can help. It's sorta hard to tell, but there is a closed base under it. Once again, sorry about the floor.

 

[Vintage Betty]

You have a lovely example of a 1920's bookcase (possibly as early as 1910 but I doubt it), with hardware intact. I don't have the time right now, but I can find out more info later.

Vintage Betty

 

[Vintage Betty]

The Hale Case appears to be from the late 1950's to mid 1960's. I will defer to someone else's opinion if they disagree with me, but the glass doors are an indicator of the age.

If you show pics of the hardware on this piece, I can give more info.

Vintage Betty

 

[scotrace]

Those are quite a great find. Congratulations!

 

[Flivver]

I love these sectional bookcases. If they weren't so expensive now, I'd have them all over the house. They're great for keeping the dust off of books, collectibles or whatever you choose to put in them. And their modular design allows you to custom tailor them to your requirements.

Here in New England we call them "stacker" bookcases. I have some made by Globe-Wernicke.

 

[imoldfashioned]

Beautiful wood color on those bookcases. I've always wanted to get some sectionals too--preferably the ones with the leaded glass that are so rare and dear. When I see them at antique shows I always ogle them.

 

[panamag8or]

I love these sectional bookcases. If they weren't so expensive now, I'd have them all over the house. They're great for keeping the dust off of books, collectibles or whatever you choose to put in them. And their modular design allows you to custom tailor them to your requirements.

Here in New England we call them "stacker" bookcases. I have some made by Globe-Wernicke.

Wernicke bought Macey in 1905, then sued them for copyright infringement soon after. Macey won, and that's when everybody jumped on the sectional bookcase wagon.

 

[Decodence]

Oh how I love barrister book cases. Shame they are a fortune.

 

[Miss 1929]

Keep your eye on auctions

A lot of the time if a city or county government is moving to larger digs, they get all new furniture. My mom picked up more of these bookshelves for her office that way!

 

[Mike in Seattle]

I have the same bookcases. They're from late 30's - just before the start of WWII. Mom started working in a field lab for an oil company in the mid-50's and one of those bookcases was filled with paperclips, another with staples. They'd bought the bookcases after the field manager decided to order paperclips & staples...cases & cases & cases...because "with the war coming on, steel's going to be the first thing we can't get!"

She'd found the old ledgers in the mid-60's when they were getting ready to demolish the buildings and she got kicked up to the head office. There were letters from the head of the company to the purchasing agent in the office asking what lame-brain had approved the purchase of a truckload of staples and a truckload of paperclips (seriously!), and had circled the check entries for the staples, paperclips & bookcases.

With them bulldozing everything starting the next day, they told those in the office that if they wanted any of the old furniture or equipment, come back after work and snag whatever they wanted. So we got several bookcases, an old card catalog file, a big thick library table and a few other things.

The same bookcases were made, as Vintage Betty mentioned, back to 1910 - Molly Brown had the library of her house in Denver filled with them - 12' high, filling all the wallspace in the room. They now have the original set back - when I visited in the 1970's, a Denver family had the whole set warehoused since her estate sale and Historic Denver was negotiating to return them to the house.

Mine were the same color but I found it's all golden oak, if you strip it - I did during the Homer Formby do-it-yourself furniture refinishing craze in the 70's. The hardware's copper under the black enamel if you take some steel wool and a LOT of elbow grease to it. But your's are in excellent shape - I wouldn't touch them. I've since learned original finish, original paint & so forth, no matter how bad the condition, increases the value of an item.