That bookcase is stunning! If you ever find another, I want one too!

Sheriz....oh, you can find them all right.....but they are pretty pricey: $7,000 and up.

Apparently there were 10,000 scheduled to be produced, but the bookstore owner told me that only 100 were made. Probably not accurate, but would certainly account for the current value.

I still want one !
Perhaps one will show up at an antique store and they will not know what they have. Hah.

You could do something modern along the same idea for a whole lot less money. Still not cheap, but much more affordable.

Here is a link that might be useful: Levenger revolving bookcase

Ah, Yoyobon, that would be just a wee bit outside my price range. Though I'll bet a good carpenter could make something similar ... now if only I knew a good carpenter!

Rosefolly, the stuff in the Levenger catalog is beautiful. When I get that catalog I just sit and sigh over it. Library lust! The pens and notebook systems don't do much for me, but the furniture and accessories are to drool for. I received the reading bear bookend for Christmas and I just love it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Levenger

sheri, I think you need a cabinet maker . . . at least that is what the superior 'chippy' is known as over here.
Many years ago I attended some evening classes held in the woodwork shop at the local secondary (ie High) school.
I have always been good with my hands (as the saying goes) and just wanted to learn how to use a variety of tools.
The instructor was insistent that I actually made something and as I wasn't interested in a spade-scrapper or a pipe-rack I made a rather wobbly lamp-stand. My pièce-de-résistance, however, was a three shelved book case made of real mahogany. This timber is almost impossible to buy these days but a load had travelled to the UK in a cargo ship carrying butter, which had melted onto the wood below, making it difficult to sell. So now I have a very shiny but useful extra place to store books. It's nothing as fancy as yoyo's eg ;-)

Vee, that's marvelous! "Buttered" mahogany sounds quite exotic. I'm fairly competent at assembling things that come in flat boxes with instructions, but I very much doubt I could build a bookcase from the ground up. And yes, cabinet maker was the term I was looking for. There are days when my mental thesaurus just isn't functioning very well *g*.

I'm going to tuck Yoyobon's bookcase away in the back of my mind - along with that turning dictionary table from Levenger and other goodies -- to furnish my dream library in my next house (or more likely, my next life).

Yes, one of our local libraries has a bookcase like that - not as fancy, but very old. Someone donated it to the library even before my time. It really is lovley, I touch it everytime I walk in.

Here's a really simple to build and really functional "Library Desk" which caught my fancy.
Not as antique and wonderful as the bookcase, but interesting non the less.
At least I could build this one !!

Here is a link that might be useful: Library desk idea

I want one, too! Alas, as beautiful as it is, I would rather spend the $7000 on books than on a place to stick the books.

PAM

Pam,
I think that they were made somewhere in PA....maybe Philadelphia?
So......they should be all over the place !!!

I'll get looking right away! I have to buy what? Fifteen? Twenty? So I can give them out as Christmas gifts to my friends at RP, right? It's only money... haha.

PAM

Even more interesting than the actual bookcase is the explanation of the system--a mini-lending library set up in certain spots. Imagine a vending machine for books--it's like the Redbox system of dollar DVD rentals! I guess it says a lot that the idea has taken off for movies but not books. . . .

Here's one up for auction. Includes some more detailed pictures. Starting bid is $1500 but estimate is $3000-$5000.

Here is a link that might be useful: closer look

Is that a current auction? It looks as if it ran a few years ago.
I do love that case though!