Breakfront bookcase

K

keith turner

New member
I am in the process of building a breakfront bookcase (from a picture in a sotherby's catalogue) .
I have built the lower section an need to construct the top. (between lower cabinets and bookcase)
I can not imagine it would be made from solid primary wood ( in my case mahogany) , therefore would the ends be mitred , so that the moulding is planed into  face grain, would it be butt jointed, so there is a small portion of end grain showing or would it be constructed so that both ends are end grain.
      Thanks
                Keith
 
I built a breakfront some time ago, and this mid-molding on mine was thinnish, I am thinking about 7-9/16ths or so with a single cockbead centered on it. Since the upper cases set back a few inches, I used a single board of face lumber about 7 inches or so wide and then entire length, I think that was about 7 feet. This is wide enough to allow the about 3-4 inches for "show" along the entire front. To this there were 4 of what I would call"legs" ,edge glued to its rear side, with the grain running the same direction as the front board, only 3-4 inches wide, 1 in each end and two in the middle to support the upper cases evenly. This whole thing is molded (with inside miters carved). In this way. when the piece is viewed, it does look as though this piece does extend all the way through as one solid plank. The "legs" as I call them allow the whole thing to sit on the bottom cases with grain in all pieces running the same direction, and covering the dovetails of the lower cases.
Hope this helps. I would draw a picture if I knew how.
Mike
 
Kieth- I think in this case the base may have had a sub-top of secondary wood with the front edge  edge-glued to it and the end breadboarded on, Sometimes another molding would be mounted to the top to stop and capture the bookcase, i think. Many secretaries and linen presses were done this way.-Al
 
I too am in the midst of a similar project. The top case is set back on the bottom by 6". The top "board" of the bottom case is essentially a frame, the front portion of which is a 7" wide board (6" of which is visible, the setback). The ends of the frame are mitered to the front with tenon joinery as on the fall front of a drop front desk. The rear piece is secondary wood tenoned into the ends off the frame, and there are cross pieces tenoned between the 7" front and 2" rear piece to provide support for the upper case.
I did not cut a molding directly onto this frame, but applied a molding. Because this is a frame there is no cross grain issue with molding on the ends

Howard Steier
 
I am also building a breakfront.  I was planning to use a single wide board for the divider between the lower and upper cases.  In this instance I would have end grain showing on the sides of the breakfront.  Also, where the side cabines are set back from the center cabinet, there would be a short section of end grain showing on each side.  To make the molding work in the corners will require some carving. 

I like this method for the reason that it totally avoids cross-grain construction.  I am using walnut, and the end grain color is not much different from the face grain.

Are there any examples of older breakfronts built this way?  I suppose that the 18th century cabinetmaker might not have wanted to try to cut end grain with a molding plane(?)

Thanks for any comments!

Paul
 
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