Caronia's Library
The way that Caronia's library was furnished was quite exquisite, and I'm now able to bring some close-ups of this to this page. We start with the bookcase. As can be seen in the photograph below, this featured burr veneers on the main body, with a contrasting frieze at the top. With the curved corners, this was late 1940s Art-Deco chic at its peak.
[Images: Courtesy of Brenton Jenkins]
[Left:]
A close-up of the chair in Caronia's library
The wide chairs in both the library and the writing room followed with a matching burr veneer theme, and a bold decorative pattern on the seat padding. Again, a very strong Art-Deco style, even though apparently, with its rather narrow squab, it's not quite as comfortable as it might look!
The Library Steward
With the Caronia's Writing Room and Library being situated fore and aft of the 1st Class Smoking Room, it fell to the Library Steward to look after both rooms. Not only did he make sure that all the desk boxes were replenished with Cunard stationery, he'd also be responsible for selling stamps and collecting mail ahead of any port arrival.
However, on Autumn Cruises into the Black Sea and due to Soviet, Rumanian and Bulgarian regulations, he was unable to sell postage stamps or collect mail. In these countries, facilities for buying stamps and posting letters were locally provided during Caronia's visits.
Usually, postage stamps of either British or American origin could be used for mailing cards and letters from most ports. On this cruise, any mail handed to the Library Steward after departure from Malta could only be posted at Istanbul. This exemption included pre-paid Air Letters that were popular with the crew.
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