French Bibliotheque?

Posting on behalf of Kelly for confirmation of origin, etc.  From her email to me:

"I appreciate anything you can tell me about this.  It was purchased in a Toronto antique shop in 2006.  They told me it was a French Victorian bibliotheque.  I am now a design student and researching this piece for my term paper for my History of Furniture class.  Now that I've been looking into it, I am most confused about the origin.  The upper insets on each side are porcelain and the middle ones are possibly gesso.  The inside is lined with a faded burgundy fabric that is velvety and glued on and appears to be original.  It's in really good condition and the back is not finished, but is a dark stained wood.  There are no obvious markings or stamps anywhere, although I haven't lifted it up to see the bottom."

There is an ebonised (sic) cabinet in this book on page 90 with identical hardware mounts and key escutcheons.  It has the gilt trim and two porcelain plaques.  This particular one has serpentine glass doors to the left and right, forming a D-shaped cabinet.  Although origin is not stated on this particular picture, most of the cabinets in the book are English.  BTW, there may be a chance the Toronto dealer meant to say "French Style" vs. identifying it as coming from France.

That's a lead at least...

Nice cabinet...I can't offer any useful opinion on it.

I'm more interested in this "History of Furniture" class.  Sounds neat.  Where does one go to school for such a thing?  Can a person get a design degree of some sort with an emphasis in Victorian furniture? 

- Jason