subject: The Overall Evolution Of Bookends [print this page] Book lovers, as well as book collectors, are all heavily reliant on the traditional bookends that we all take for granted without ever wondering how these handy decorative pieces ever came to be. These functional and sometimes artistically inspired items have been around for quite some time, and have made their own mini niche in history.
The development of books and manuscripts were something that monasteries had been steadily working on ever since the time of the Dark Age, also known as the medieval age. The eventual need for shelves to store these books in soon followed in the late sixteenth century, which was in the later part of the Renaissance, when many people became obsessed with books and plays, and the number of volumes available began to increase.
Original horizontal book stacks were cumbersome and piled high to utilize as much space as possible, and this was all right in the days of old when there were relatively few volumes to stack. When volumes began to increase in number, the stacks began to pose a great safety risk for those who were unlucky enough to be standing in the right place just as an individual pulled out a book from the middle of a large pile, causing this stack of heavy books to come crashing down.
Book chests were also large, space consuming, and impractical in terms of accessing the right book within a short period of time. Shelves were more practical and these were developed to place books in vertical positions for storage, making them accessible and safe for the users.
Books were, of course, sometimes quite soft in those days of old, and the tendency for long lines of books to fall or slide right off the shelf became a problem. Book support was needed badly, and this triggered the birth of the classic bookend.
Shelves then began to develop into larger and taller versions of themselves, requiring more and more demands for book side supports. The early bookends were then designed with specific prescribed standards of weight and size in order to ensure their reliable service in spite of how heavy the books could be.
Different bookends have since then evolved, following themes such as soccer, basketball, cartoon characters, entertainment figures, and more. There are items such as these that have made it to homes because of the decorative designs that provide an excellent accent concept for a particular room.
Most individuals keep bookends as a decorative piece, holding up books as well as keeping the overall area's "look" intact. The classic style that bookends add to a room in order to accent the interior concept being expressed is something that has become popular in many homes, as well as among many art collectors who keep antique bookends for their overall value.
