I presume the drawers are made with plain butt joints. Could this be a home crafted, one of a kind, desk? I can't tell what the major wood is, but it appears that it might be heavily stained soft wood.

There is another curious feature: The drawers are set low. There is a large space between the drawer and the desk top. Is there anything is the space above the drawers? Someting hidden, or accessible from the back?

The top lifts up(I believe it's a slant front desk) but the slant isn't so visible from this angle. There is a deep pocket inside with 3 small cubby holes in the back. I don't know how to identify wood but it is very light. I was thinking pine at least for the drawers. I think the drawers have what you call butted joints.

Those are impossible to ID and date ... so many people had a local furniture maker, nameless, who might have been making things he learned how to make from an older worker.

Or an advanced woodshop class project?

Ah. I guess I was hoping that the maker info had been removed and someone would say ' that's a _____". I'm not interested in value as I wouldn't sell it for anything but the age interests me. I'm thinking 100 to 150 years old. Would anyone say older?

Even though a picture is worth 1,000 words, the words on this picture are not helping with determining an age.

The style is somewhat basic, like office furniture, an belies a specific dating, by style alone. Styles like this desk were made from the early 19th century till the 1940s. Sometimes made in a skilled shop as a bread-and-butter item, sometimes in a mass production factory, sometimes by a local furniture maker, sometimes by grandpa in the basement on his new fangled lathe.

The turning is like that used in the early part of the 19th century, so there is a possibility it is earlier. I have seen this type of turning on shop-made items from the 1840s-1860s made by immigrant farmers for their own use.

You have to look beyond style to pinpoint age and this piece might be a good learners test for someone wanting to learn antiques, but a headache for someone who wants to tell you the age.

Here's what you need to look for:

Wood: type of wood, grain (large pieces of wood, or narrow pieces glued together), Relative dryness of the wood.
secondary woods.
How the wood was sawed, sanded, beveled, molded, or planed (under drawers).
How the wood was turned (legs, nobs), by how, I mean the tool used and sanding, etc.

Joinery: How the pieces were connected and joined, types of joints, nails, screws and the size and fittings of the pieces. Mortise and tenon, pegs, dovetailing.
. Finish, Original finish or redone. "smokey" aging on the unfinished underside of the wood. Wear on the drawer treads under the feet and on the backside where it may have rubbed a wall.

Thank you. I would gladly describe it in better detail if I knew what I was talking about. However I have a feeling that if I knew what I was talking about I wouldn't need help identifying. Catch 22. What I will try to do later is take a better series of photos and upload them to an online album because the 1 photo per post here is to limiting.

Lets see if this works. Dark day here today not good for photo taking.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flickr album for desk

I am not an expert, but this is my opinion from the photos.

The legs look like the style of early turning from the 1840s or older.

The general construction also looks early.

I can't tell from the photo, but the top should be a single plank, not joined wood. The lower shelf looks like a single plank that has split.

There appears to be some refurbishing.

We would expect dove-tailed drawers,

But the secondary wood on the drawer sides doesn't seem to match other secondary wood, and it looks like new sides were put on at a later date and the dovetailing was mitered and a corner support put in. The nails look forged, so that repair may have been done at a fairly early period, or by someone in the 1970s who wanted it to look old.

The nobs may have been replaced.

The back of the chest looks to have the proper patina for an early 19th century piece.

Thank you very much. Yes I did get the impression looking at the desk that the drawers may have been rebuilt. The lumber used seems to be reclaimed as it is full of extra nail holes. So probably the dove tailing was stripped at that time. I think the knobs look original and were once held on with pegs that long ago broke off and someone stuck in some nails/screws for a quick fix.

There is something odd about the drawer. The inside view shows a lock set into the front piece, but the outside view has no keyhole. How was the lock operated at one time: by rotating the knob or by raising the top? It appears inoperable now. I suspect the drawer was reconsructed by using parts from the original. Maybe a new drawer front has been put over the piece containing the lock set. The replacement front need not be new wood; Old wood could have been used.

Also, the inside view shows that the knob is not symmetric with the lock set. However, it is possible that the keyhole in the lock set is off center.

The ink stains would be consistent with a desk used before 1945. After 1945, ball points and improved fountain pens reduced the occurence of accidental ink spills. By 1950, fountain pens with pre-filled ink cartridges rose in popularity.

It's not so visible in the photos but the key holes have been filled in and stained.

would gladly describe it in better detail if I knew what I was talking about. However I have a feeling that if I knew what I was talking about I wouldn't need help identifying. Catch 22.

Yup ... that's the way it works.

I think the desk was modified from a larger piece, or heavily repaired. The back has that odd mark at the right of the photo, as if the boards were salvaged from elsewhere.

It's still a nice-looking piece, just inscrutable.

it really is impossible to tell from photos the truth of this desk. but i can see JACOB MARLEE (sp?) writing down the accounts on his ledger while fending off the cold with a piece of coal.

cut nails go back to the iron age. newer cut nails (like what is used in cement and brick) will have a blue tint when you scratch off the surface rust .
if you look inside and under it, see if there's a deep accumulation of dirt or maybe what looks like carbon has built up on the wood, scratch the wood with a finger nail until you hit fresh wood. if it's not deep into the wood then it's suspect.

the top at least looks to have been replaced. there's no ware pattern on the finish and that it looks like someone recently managed to get a coat of amber shelac to stick.
i'm just say'n

If I know anything about this desk it's that is has been stuck in my step-fathers spare room for at LEAST the last 20 years. I know he hasn't touched it. He doesn't know where it came from. He inherited the house furniture and all from his father. The top has plenty of dings and what look like burn marks. I think the whole thing has had at least one new coat of varnish at some point in it's life. The whole thing is pretty dirty which I didn't notice until I got into taking detailed pictures.