A glass cabinet is a cabinet with glazed doors, and often glazed sides, designed to display and protect china, glass, silver, books or collections while keeping them visible. The term covers a range of forms, including display cabinets, china cabinets, vitrines, bookcases, corner cabinets and museum or shop showcases.
Glazed cabinets became fashionable in England in the later seventeenth century, when collecting Chinese porcelain created a need for display furniture. Georgian cabinetmakers produced glazed bookcases and china cabinets with astragal-glazed doors in mahogany and satinwood, while the Victorian and Edwardian periods brought a great variety of display cabinets, from bow-fronted mahogany vitrines with inlaid decoration to French-style giltwood vitrines and oak shop cabinets. Glazed cabinets remained in production throughout the twentieth century. Buyers should check that the glass is secure and appropriate to the period, that doors open and close freely, that locks and keys work and that shelves are original. Old glass shows slight ripples and irregularities. Internal lighting can transform the display of objects, though it should be fitted carefully and must not generate excessive heat in a closed case.
