Please help identy desk

11 years ago

Hi every I'm new on this board. I was hoping if someone could help me identify this desk and give me some more information about it. Who made it? what year. It used to belong to a school that was closed down and this desk used to be in a library. I noticed one date state in one of the drawers with the year 1967, I'm not sure if thats the manufactured date or a stamp that a librarian used for books.. I spliced three seperate photos in one jpg file. the bottom right is how the desk orginally looked before i stripped the varnish and sanded it down. Forgo the take a photo with the drawers in it. the larger photo of the desk is how it looked like stripped of its varnished and sanded down. The drawers had wooden handles which one was broken so i decided to remove them all and change them to something different. YOu can see that it has very old locks that requires skeleton keys. If anyone has info oh what type of skeleton key i could use or where i could buy one. and I included the picture of the chair that came with it. If no one knows could you point me to a website of some kind or another forum where antique furnitiure fans... Thank in advance for any help you could offer. I would love to get my hands on some keys... I've already stained the desk to a mahogoney red. came out very nice..

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Comments (7)

phrank74
Original Author
11 years ago
here's what it looks like today with two coats of Mahagoney Red varnish. You can see that im still working on the three drawers to the upper right. For some reason the front face of the drawers didnt take th varnish so well. it must be pine. The desk sure came out nice with the varnish. had to resand the drawers and try again tomorrow. tomorrow ill put a coat of polyurethane on the desk. I love this desk so much. going to use it for school.. I'm also going to strip the varnish of the chair and stain it the same color. A note about the legs, very interesting, they are not hammered in or screwed in with a screw. I'm not sure of the correct terminology but the legs can be unscrewed from the desk, and when you do, the part the screws in to the desk is would that looks like a screw but actual solid wood. not sure if that made sense...
phrank74
Original Author
11 years ago
After two coats of varnish, front view. still working on drawers...
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lazy_gardens
11 years ago
There were several companies that specialized in "library furniture" and school furniture. They were sturdy rather than high style.

It looks like a good, useful table or desk, but there is no way to identify the maker.
moonshadow
11 years ago
Nice work :)
Have you tried wood conditioner on the bare wood before staining the drawers?
phrank74
Original Author
11 years ago
@lazygardens, Thanks for the info. I couldn't find it either anywhere on the web and I searched the heck out of google. Sturdy it is. Its all solid. You can't even find furniture this good and well constructed nowadays.

@moonshadow, I did, still no difference, i even used minwax. I even tried using 60 grit paper to open up the wood more so it would take in more of the stain. Still came out blotchy. But not as much as before. I think using a 60 grit paper helped a little...

Do any of you know what the value might be? I've seen secretary style desk like these in ashley furniture and other stores where the value was around $7-$800
lazy_gardens
11 years ago
Value? It saved you $800 and got you a better desk than an Ashley (those are not well-made).

If you were to resell it, maybe $50-75
Zippity-do-dah
11 years ago
The finish is gorgeous on that wood.....graining pops, has depth and looks richer.