My Dictionary Bookstand

My friend, Eve Harris, saw this bookstand at an antique shop we visited in St. Petersburg, Florida on Saturday. For ninety dollars, I couldn't pass it up. Down the road I may strip it and stain it, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy it.

OOH!!!! Gorgeous!!

MrsHouseLibrary and I searched in vain for one of those a few years ago. This was prior to ordering new bookshelves... So, we had one built. Eventually, I'll get some sort of account on a site where I can then load pictures of the shelves (and our solution to the what-to-do-with-the-big-fat-dictionary problem).

I am filled with "want" - it is lovely.

Wow. That's a thing of beauty.

Looks like it could be the model for this one that Levenger sells (for about 4 times the price). I've been coveting the Levenger one for years, but I'd have jumped on your deal without hesitation.

Is this envy or jealousy I'm feeling. It feels sort of green. ;-)
Os.

>5 Osbaldistone:

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/envy/#1.2
it sounds like this might be jealousy.

From what I could gather - the focus of jealousy is the thing and the focus of envy is the rival.

You'd be lusting after the bookstand whether it was me or moibibliomaniac who had acquired it (oh, why couldn't it have been me? :-).

Envy would be you'd be clenching your fists because moibibliomaniac always gets the best bookcases and has all the nice stuff.

ETA:
Wait. This isn't the Pedants' Corner group - you might not have cared that much...

I bought the bookstand at the Gas Plant Antique Arcade on Central Ave. in St. Pete. The bookstand was listed for $150, but the seller recently reduced to $90, possibly that very day.
The bookstand was covered with all sorts of small antiques. In fact, I walked right past it on my way upstairs to where the books were. My friend noticed it, and pointed it out to my wife because she knew I was looking for one. Yes, I thanked my wife profusely as well!

Currently, I have the OED displayed on the bookstand. I will rotate it with Johnson's Dictionary and some of my other folios.

I doubt I could have passed it up myself! Nice!

Saturday, after work I was in a hurry to get home to make it to my sister-in-laws for dinner with the family when I drove past a yard sale and got a quick look at a small piece of furniture, a dictionary stand, painted an ugly red, sitting near the road. I told myself that I couldn’t be late, that it couldn’t be in good condition for them to get rid of it like that, and that it was a really ugly color. I got almost a mile away before I turned around to take a closer look. It really was an ugly color and I could see evidence of at least three more coats of paint underneath the red. There was one ding on the rail that keeps the book from sliding off the sloped top. But, it was sturdy; I thought it had nice lines and that it would eventually look good holding my atlas’s in the last small section of bare wall in my library. They wanted ten dollars for it and I felt I would get in more trouble with my wife if I took the time to haggle. It is not as heavy duty as Jerry’s and I suspect I am going to find pine under all that paint.

Oh, Jerry, I wouldn’t strip the finish or do anything more than dust. Blemishes add character according to the Antiques Roadshow people. You have a really nice piece of furniture. I think it is oak from the pictures and something, the solid wood it is made from, makes me think it is from the first quarter if the twentieth century. Don’t trust me though, it is over thirty years since I worked for an antiques dealer and I was there for my strong back not my mind. Are the wheels metal or ceramic?

Tonight, after I get home I will post a ‘before’ photo. This weekend I will strip the paint and either stain it or paint it depending on the quality of the wood.

Yes, look beyond the coats of paint and if you can see a nice piece of furniture beneath all that...

Also, I can confirm that removing a finish - if that isn't absolutely necessary - is often a sure way to ruin an antique / vintage piece of furniture (or at least the value of it - not that value may be the prime concern here, but I would still advise to take it into consideration at least).

My message from this afternoon never appeared!

>9 TLCrawford: & 10: Get rid of the paint and you will probably have a decent-looking bookstand.
I've decided my dictionary stand looks good just the way it is.
I don't think the wood is oak, though, because it is light compared to my oak dining chairs.

Here is a link to a photo of the stand I mentioned in #9

http://picasaweb.google.com/bukwrm1957/Library?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ60sqnm7v3gKw#slid...

I'm jealous too.

I couldn't find one of those at a price I could afford, so ended up putting my large dictionaries atop back-to-back 3-shelf bookcases running down the center of the room. Seems to be the right height, and gets good light. (The room is, of course, lined with taller bookcases.)

When the school I used to work for was remodeling, they were putting in new speaker's platforms with computers for their powerpoints built in under them and adjustable heights for ADA compliance. A friend of mine bought a podium out of the batch that was phased out to use as a stand for her compact OED. Worked great and I think it was $40, though we had a time getting it into her roommate's Grand Am. So my advice: poke around at the procurement surplus department of colleges near you.

> #12

Looks like Federal Red to me, which is a color I like. I'm thinking of getting bookcases that color.

I only have one book in my library that would justify a stand like that, and it isn't a dictionary or atlas.

The color has been growing on me but the quality of the paint job is terrible. There are several layers of old paint underneath it that have partially pealed and were just painted over. I am a bachelor this weekend so I am going to strip it and decide if I want to stain it or paint it.

Don’t keep us in suspense. What book is it?

Maybe we can guess what book it is by looking at his library. My first thought was perhaps he had a lovely facsimile of some classic--a Shakespeare folio, or perhaps Chaucer or some religious work. That hasn't panned out, though. He's a big sci fi fan, though; what big, fancy work might someone fannish drool over?

Most sci-fi/fantasy books aren't wide though, unless you count the art ones...

>15 rgurskey:-18

A scan of his non-fiction - maybe an encyclopedia of aircraft or comprehensive WWI history?

The on in my library that would justify the stand is the 1918 Rural Efficiency Guide (4 volumes in one). About 7 inches thick. The next two biggest books are The Complete Works of Shakespeare and The Stand. (My Dictionary is in two volumes so I'm not sure how that would do on the stand.)

My 1880 La Divina Commedea in Italian with the Doré etchings deserves a stand. It needs to be a wide stand because I can only read it with a translation sitting beside it.

My facsimile of the Kelmscott Chaucer (non folio-edition) would justify a book stand; we just don;t have space for one

That would be my problem - space.

>22 hailelib: - That's the eternal problem. Seems everyone has it.

I recently acquired another dictionary this weekend, and thought I should display my "other" dictionary stand. Until last night, it performed as a book stand, displaying a page or two from Anthony Hobson's Great Libraries

When I need to look up a word, I can either look it up in my Compact Edition of the OED in my mobile dictionary stand or in my "other" dictionary in my "other" dictionary stand.

My "other" dictionary isn't any ordinary dictionary. It is the thirteen-volume edition of the OED, published in 1933, and reprinted in 1961 and 1970. I shall call it my "other" OED. Its volumes, when in use, will rest in my "other" dictionary stand.

25: Showoff. :)

I didn't realize my single large book would be such a mystery. It's Warplanes of the Third Reich by William Green. It's about 12 inches tall, 10 inches wide and 1.5 inches thick. Rather heavy. But while I was looking for it in my library, I realized I have some other large books; French Aircraft of the First World War and Wake Up America! World War I and the American Poster. However, all of these books are not something you would typically leave on a bookstand for perusal like you would a dictionary or one-volume encyclopedia.

If only we could search our libraries by size!

Do you know the history of your antique bookstand? I have one identical to yours without the bottom shelf. This bookstand stood in the hallway of the house where I grew up. It was old then, and I am now 60. My parents are gone and I have no knowledge of the bookstands history......Mo

>6 PortiaLong:, 26: in post 25 I believe moibibliomaniac is trying to upgrade our jealousy to sheer envy.

It seems to be working for me.

I recently acquired yet another bookstand. This one came with a dictionary:

This bookstand serves a dual purpose. When I need to refer to one of my large-sized books while on my computer, I can remove the Webster Dictionary and place the large book on the book stand.

Very nice, perhaps you can read the Folio King James bible on it if you are so inclined.

Thanks for the dictionary stand topic, moibibliomaniac. It's nice to see what kind of styles are out there. I picked up an old dictionary stand a few years ago. One feature that's always puzzled me is a four-pronged shelf thing below the book platform. The metal shelf spins freely and will slide up and down the column. The purpose of this is a mystery--it doesn't seem ideally suited for books. Maybe it's missing something. Perhaps someone here can enlighten me with their dictionary stand knowledge.

From Library

Spikes for a very fussy editor?

Perhaps a place to store pointers or page turners, so people don't touch the pages of a rare book?

I was thinking that some here might appreciate this design by some former classmates of mine. I really should contact them to see if it was ever put into production for sale.

It's called Fly-Book_Fly

http://www.qb3design.com/things_fly_book_fly.php

Even if it wasn't, it looks like something that could be relatively easy to build yourself.

That is a very cool design - elegant and simple.

Yes, very nice design. And yes, easy to copy - though I would feel bad about doing so.

#36: Oh, I love that! If I were remotely creative, that would be fun to make. Thanks for sharing, manatree. :)

>33 TrippB: TrippB, I was just browsing through the 1895 Montgomery Ward Catalogue, and they carried a dictionary stand very like this. The little rack with the four spikes is for additional books, "up to eight" IIRC. The spikes are a sort of built-in bookend.

Thanks for solving my mystery! And it's always good to have a place for additional books.

My pleasure!

I have a simple, cheap solution that works for me when I am using large dictionaries like Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon or Robert Payne Smith's Thesaurus Syriacus. On a table next to my chair, I place the dictionary on a Qur'an stand like this:

.

They're cheap, foldable and robust. They also come in a variety of sizes. They also have the advantage of reducing the stress on the bindings, not opening flat. Of course, one doesn't have to go to the extreme of this ancient Mosque-sized one: