Globe Wernicke Bookcase

When we speak of the most recognizable and timeless classic style of luxury office furniture, we feel a special kind of pride and pleasure to present to you this featured selection of brand new, high-quality replica pieces of what may be by far the most well-known and appreciated brand in the American office furniture history – the Studio Globe Wernicke bookcase collection.

If you're looking to add an unparalleled touch of sophisticated elegance to your executive office or home study with a beautiful bar unit  and a Studio Globe Wernicke barrister bookcase, look no further! We've got that covered for you, and more!

It is almost certain that, by now, after you've gone through our awesome selection of these fine pieces, you are probably already well into the idea and notion of working in such a warm and sophisticated, and most importantly - comfortable and practical space that the Globe Wernicke furniture can create.

Now let's look a little bit into the history of the original products and the emblematic company that produced them.

Globe Wernicke are mostly remembered and recognized today for their modular wooden bar cabinet, which are often called “barrister” bookcases because of their popularity with lawyers. Originally created and referred to as “elastic” bookcases by its creators, the glass front modular bookcases are typified by their adaptability which allows the consumers to move them around to accommodate additional units, adjusting the height and depth of the bookcase. The bookcases' upward-lifting mechanism makes it possible to attach additional shelving to the top of each individual shelf, and this particular design was such a huge success that many other furniture manufacturers adopted different variations that strike as extremely similar in design and function to the original Globe Wernicke's products.

Primarily known as an office furniture manufacturer, The Globe Files Company was established back in 1882 as by American businessman Henry C. Yeiser in Cincinnati. Nine years later, a German immigrant named Otto Wernicke founded the Wernicke Company in Minneapolis, then right after that came the economic panic of 1893, but Wernicke managed to survive and moved the company to Michigan – near the center of America's furniture manufacturing heart. It was precisely during those early years that Wernicke invented and started producing their globe wernicke sectional bookcase which received a patent in 1892 as “Sectional Stock-Case” and this eventually evolved to become a whole system of interchangeable units of varying bases, sections and cornice elements of different sizes and styles, which would be custom-combined by customers to meet their practical needs and stylistic interests.

Yeiser was so impressed with Wernicke's system that he purchased his company in 1899 and renamed the combined operation to the Globe-Wernicke Company. After the merger, Globe Wernicke's modular bookcases were made at a large factory near Cincinnati, then at the height of their production, the company eventually opened additional factories or licensed operations in England, Canada, France, Belgium and Austria.

The company had undergone some transformations after the original merger, until it was purchased in 1955 by Ohio-based City Auto Stamping, later changing their name to Globe-Weis Systems. The company ceased their production outside America during the 1960s.

Throughout the years, GW produced their barristers bookcase in at least twelve styles: the Standard style, the Mission style (also called the Art-Mission style), the Colonial style, the Ideal style, the Sheraton style, the Economy style, the Universal style, the Ambassador style, the Monticello style, the Arlington style, the Washington style, and a style called the 33 Inch Line.

The Standard style was the original design and it's still the most common one, recognizable by its metal straps at the joints between each section. These sections were available in different dimensions. The Standard style cases were discontinued by the year 1922. All of the other styles were each introduced and then pulled out of production in different years. Stackable bookcases are still made today, both in the US and abroad, and some are made to stand up to the exact same look and quality of the originals, like the high-quality replicas labeled Studio Globe Wernicke, which we hereby present and offer to our customers to purchase and enjoy.

The originals are considered antiques with practical use and are highly desirable to collectors, and regularly appear at auction houses and online auctions. Therefore it is needless to say that they can sell for thousands of dollars. As a quality replica, every Studio Globe Wernicke barrister bookcase is promised to maintain the high standards of the original, but will spare you the ordeal of spending time looking for an original in antique shops or online auctions and then spend a small fortune without knowing for sure the exact condition of the piece and how long it will last and serve.