Antique English Regency Painted Open Bookcase

This extremely interesting open bookcase has a painted finish throughout, areas of simulated rosewood with applied simulated inlay painted on top contrasting with ebonised sections with guilloché, roses, Tudor roses, oak leaves and acorns. It seems likely that the symbolism of all of these floral elements was not accidental – the piece was probably conceived in the period when medieval revivalism became fashionable for a group of connoisseurs in the mid 19th century in Britain.