Layens Hives are fine. Sure, they've become a little bit 'trendy' of late, but you can't blame the hive for that. 1800's ? Well, 1880 onwards - well into the post-Langstroth period - following which nothing much of significance has changed within the world of beekeeping.
Is it a large volume hive ? No, it's a variable-volume hive achieved by courtesy of a pair of movable partition (divider, follower) boards - so the volume can be as small as you need, or varied according to requirements.
BTW, despite what you may read on the Internet, Georges de Layens did NOT invent the hive which carries his name. He simply chose an existing hive which met his requirements, then wrote a book about it - insodoing popularising that hive - but he wasn't obsessed with it's frame dimensions, and is on record (in his book on Economical Hive Construction) as commending the 14x14 inch frame. I have several horizontal hives with similar 14x12 inch frames which are perfectly satisfactory.
When compared with the Root-Langstroth Hive, the Layens Hive is favoured by many beekeepers within southern Spain, and a somewhat similar hive design is highly popular throughout the Ukraine.
Indeed, I'm finding the Ukrainian Hive to be a joy to work, and as a bonus it's 17-inch deep frames can very easily be supplemented by rotated Brit Nat DN4's mounted on adapters should this ever prove necessary - a feature absent within the Layens Hive with it's slightly shorter depth.
If you ever get tired of lifting heavy boxes simply in order to inspect a brood nest, you could do a lot worse than consider a Horizontal Beehive - all in all, it's my favourite hive format.
LJ