Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Shakespeare Room

Shakespeare Room

completed 1942

Planning for the Shakespeare Room began in 1912, when members of the Shakespeare Society of NSW gathered to plan a commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in April 1616. However, with the outbreak of World War I the event went almost unnoticed and it wasn’t until 1942 that this room finally opened to the public as the Shakespeare Tercentenary Memorial Library.

The design of the Shakespeare Room was inspired by the Tudor style of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey’s closet in Hampton Court Palace. The room is lined with Tasmanian blackwood and treated to resemble English oak. The motif of linen folds was a favourite among Tudor woodcarvers and is used throughout the panelling. Other exceptional examples of the woodcarver’s skill are the two intricately carved pillars just inside the door.

Above the door inside the room is Queen Elizabeth I’s coat of arms, which is repeated on the wooden cornice alternating with the coat of arms of the Earl of Southampton, who was one of Shakespeare’s patrons. Queen Elizabeth’s coat of arms bears her motto Semper eadem (‘Always the same’) and the inscription Honi soit qui mal y pense (‘Shamed be he who thinks evil of it’). Outside above the doorway and on the glass doors is Shakespeare’s own coat of arms, granted to his father John Shakespeare in October 1596. The motto Non sanz droict translates as ‘Not without right’.

Charles Sherline, responsible for the exquisite woodwork in the Shakespeare Room, started his professional life as a hairdresser. He perhaps learnt the craft of woodworking from his father, who carved some of the wood paneling on the SS Titanic.

During construction the wood was regularly dampened down many months before final assembly to ensure the joints would not move. During assembly, the panelling was secured in place using mallets wrapped in blankets to avoid bruising the wood. Very little glue was used. 

The Library’s Shakespeare collection includes a number of books that once belonged to the English writer and social critic Charles Dickens.

The linen fold design used in the woodwork is thought to have originated in Flanders in northern Europe the 1300s, where it was used to decorate chests in which linen was stored. Flanders, which included parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands, gained much of its power and wealth from its textile industry.

The parquet floor was laid by Thatcher and Oberg Pty Ltd. Hogden Brothers were the contractors for the joinery.

The Tasmanian blackwood that lines the room was lightened to resemble English oak by exposing it to ammonia fumes and then sealing it with an eggshell finish, a low-lustre paint finish used on decorative surfaces.