This is an unrestored, antique French bookcase, presented exactly how it looked in the late 1800s, when it was new. Typically, when we see a Napoleon III style black anything, more often than not, some antique dealer, like ourselves, will have ebonized the wood. This antique French black bookcase, was not ebonized, or even stained black, for much of the cabinet is made from genuine ebony. In the last 26 years, I can count the number of “real” ebony pieces, we have had on one hand; they are that rare. There are some secondary woods, that were used on the cabinet, such as near the bottom and we chose to leave the original patina, rather than blacken them.
