Art Deco Style Bookcase #31591

This is an Art Deco style bookcase that we retrieved from an old Western-style house.

This cabinet is made of solid birch wood and carefully crafted using traditional woodworking techniques. The glass is retro patterned glass, and the door has an acanthus wood carving.

Art Deco is generally considered to be a style that followed the Art Nouveau era and was popular in Europe and America (New York) from the mid-1910s to the 1930s. While Art Nouveau was an organic design that made extensive use of curves reminiscent of plants, Art Deco is characterized by symbolic expressions with geometric motifs and contrasting expressions using primary colors. Art Deco was also used in interiors and furniture, and the designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright are sometimes considered to be part of the Art Deco movement. Meanwhile, Art Deco was also popular in Japan for a period from the end of the Taisho era to the beginning of the Showa era. Examples of architecture include the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum (formerly the residence of Prince Asaka), Isetan Shinjuku Main Store, Hilltop Hotel, Osaka Prefectural Government Building, Daimaru Shinsaibashi Store, and Nakanoshima Public Hall. At that time, cars were running in Japan, radio and movies were developed, and mechanical civilization was changing people's lives. Men and women danced to jazz in city dance halls, and modern boys and girls (mobo and moga) dressed in cutting-edge fashions attracted attention in Ginza. Also, Takehisa Yumeni, a painter and poet who depicted the atmosphere of this era, gained popularity for his portraits of beautiful women filled with nostalgia and exotic tastes.