 ELASTIC STORAGE
by Fred Taylor
STACKING BOOKCASES
Almost every antiques auction sooner or later has one. And almost every mall has at least one filled with
"dustables" and breakables. If you ask about them you probably will be told it is a "barrister" bookcase made by
Globe-Wernicke in Cincinnati around the turn of the century and that they are fairly rare. That's at least partly
right. Globe-Wernicke did make stacking bookcases in Cincinnati around the turn of the century but they certainly
were not the only one making them and they were not aimed primarily at the lawyer market and they were not made
strictly around the turn of the century and they are not rare.
Otto Wernicke opened a furniture factory in Minneapolis in 1893 and moved it to Grand Rapids in 1897, around the
time when Wernicke patented his idea of the multi-section stacking "elastic" bookcase. It could be expanded by
adding separate additional units to a crown and base. In 1882 a Cincinnati businessman named Henry C. Yeiser
started a new "office products" company he called Globe Files Co., eventually coming up with the idea of a cabinet
that could store files vertically instead of flat on a shelf. Yeiser took an interest in the stacking bookcase
concept, feeling it would fit well in his company and purchased the Wernicke factory, renaming the company
Globe-Wernicke. The original marketing thrust by G-W was to libraries and businesses, natural targets for the
office supply industry. The "barrister" moniker followed years later. After that the race was on. An English
manufacturer named Thomas Turner started marketing the design in England, forming The Globe-Wernicke Company, LTD
to market throughout Europe.
Otto Wernicke returned to Grand Rapids and bought the Fred Macey Furniture Company in 1905, renaming it
Macey-Wernicke. The principal product of Macey-Wernicke, later renamed simply Macey, was - surprise - a stacking
bookcase that looked identical to Globe's. Of course Globe-Wernicke sued Macey-Wernicke for patent infringement on
Wernicke's original patent. Macey eventually won but meanwhile that left the door open for others to join the fray
and they walked, or ran, right in.
One of the early competitors was the Gunn Furniture Co. right there in Grand Rapids.
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