Black Granite Split Arch Bookend Pair, 7in

One arch, cut in two

These are not two bookends that match. They are one cusped multi-foil arch cut vertically down its centre, so sliding them together completes the whole profile and pulling them apart opens it. Whatever sits between them — a run of books, a stack of magazines — becomes the span of the arch. The gap is not a by-product of using them; it is the piece working as intended.

Cut as a mirrored pair

A matched pair has to be genuinely symmetrical for the join to close cleanly when the two halves are pushed together, which is exactly the kind of tolerance machine cutting holds well and freehand carving struggles to repeat. The profile is set out and cut as one operation, then the faces and the moulded steps are finished by hand. Black granite gives the silhouette its authority: the multi-foil profile reads as a hard graphic outline against a wall or a shelf back, which the same shape in white marble would soften.

Where it sits

A study shelf, an office credenza, a coffee-table stack. Each half is 7 inches tall and dense enough to hold a substantial run of hardbacks without creeping. The bases are felt-backed so they will not mark a timber shelf.

Making yours

The arch profile can follow a cusped, ogee or plain semicircular line, and the pair can be made taller for oversized art books. They are cut for you by the master sculptors we work with in Jaipur. Allow four to eight weeks. Supplied as a pair, and they present well in a fitted box for corporate gifting.