[5] The bookcase was designed by Burges to hold his collection of art books, and was originally displayed at his rooms in Buckingham Street in London.

The architectural writer and collector and Burges connoisseur Charles Handley-Read described the bookcase as "occupying a unique position in the history of Victorian painted furniture.

[8][9] Fourteen artists were involved in the decoration of the bookcase; Edward Burne-Jones, John Anster Fitzgerald, Henry Holiday, Stacy Marks, Albert Moore, Thomas Morten, Edward Poynter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Charles Rossiter, Frederick Smallfield, Simeon Solomon, William Frederick Yeames, Fred Weeks, Nathaniel Westlake, and Burges himself.

[2] The decoration of the front of the bookcase is divided into two sides, featuring pagan and Christian themes, the themes are as follows: On the sides of the bookcase are depicted Saint Augustine by Solomon, Plato by Rossiter, Saint Cecilia by Morten, Orpheus by Yeames, Sirens by Fitzgerald, and Harpies by Weeks.

[2] After the bookcase fell over in 1878, extra decoration was added inside with the addition of allegories of eight metals by Weeks to replace paintings by Fitzgerald damaged in the fall.