Each with a quirked ovolo molding at the cornice, the friezes applied with rosettes, the upper doors inset with brass flowerhead-mounted trellis and opening to three shelves at each side, adjustable but fixed by later brackets, the lower doors paneled and opening to a single adjustable shelf at each side, the slightly narrower with white chalk inscription '20264193/2' to its back and applied with laid-paper labels inside the lower section inscribed in an old hand 'Emma Painting Materials' and 'Fanny Painting Materials,' the slightly wider with a mostly-erased white chalk number
The wider cabinet: 84 in. (213.5 cm.) high, 60¹⁄₂ in. (154 cm.) wide, 19¹⁄₄ in. (49 cm.) deep
The narrower cabinet: 84 in. (213.5 cm.) high, 58¹⁄₂ in. (149 cm.) wide, 19¹⁄₄ in. (49 cm.) deep

Possibly originally made for the Rev. John Hargreaves (d. 1818) of Old Hall, Acrrington, Lancashire, and by descent;
Reginald Gervis Hargreaves (1852-1926) of Cuffnells, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, and his wife Alice, nee Liddell (1852-1934).
Acquired from Mallett, London.

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Lot Essay

These handsome and finely-made bookcases belonged to the cricketer Reginald Gervis Hargreaves (1852-1926) and his wife Alice, née Liddell (1852-1934). Alice was immortalized in the 1860s as the inspiration to Charles "Lewis Carroll" Dodgson for the title character in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The story that became the 1865 beloved children's novel originated on 4 July 1862, when Dodgson, with his fellow Oxford don, Robinson Duckworth, invited the young Alice and her sisters, Ina and Edith, on a picnic during which he invented a fairy-story for the girls to pass the time. Dodgson, a friend of the Liddell family, practiced photography as well as writing, and Alice provided much further inspiration to him as a model in subsequent years.

The cabinet sections of the bookcases are labeled 'Emma Painting Materials' and 'Fanny Painting Materials', presumably for Reginald’s sisters, Emma Caroline and Fanny Helena Hargreaves. A photograph of the three siblings as children, circa 1860, was sold from the estate of Alice Liddell Hargreaves by Sotheby’s, London, 6 June, 2001, lot 59 and is today preserved in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (accession no. 2015.2038).