Featured Any Info On This Secretary Desk?

A few days ago I was at the dump and saw this old secretary desk in a pile of scrap wood that was likely going to get taken to landfill pretty soon. Unfortunately, it was clearly thrown onto the edge of the pile pretty hard, and had a good amount of damage and had many pieces scattered all around it that I had to collect. There was crudely cast and clearly somewhat hand carved after casting metal decoration on the top of the desk that I mostly recovered, though there is a small section of it that I still haven't retrieved, I looked for it again at the dump today, but wasn't able to, though at least I was able to retrieve the last metal knob it was missing, other than that, it is 100% complete. The metal decoration I was able to find isn't shown in the photos unfortunately. A bit of veneer was missing, and from what veneer I could recover, I was able to glue some back on, though what was missing I was able to stain for now, until I can fix it better, it's hard to notice unless you know where to look though. Except for the small area of wood by the lower door that was completely frayed and splintered up, that required some work to even reattach the bottom left door. It was basically a basket case at first though, with many pieces of wood that needed to be carefully glued, though now it is a very beautiful piece of furniture that I am proud to have in the house. It makes me sad though to know that such a beautiful historic piece was treated with such disrespect and was destined for landfill if I didn't save it.

What I'm curious about though is approximately what the age of this piece is, it appears similar to some Georgian era pieces, and it certainly seems to have that age from what I see on it. Everything on it appears to be handmade, down to the brass keyhole cover on the top that has a clearly hand cut design. Nothing is really symmetrical on it either, with the two long drawers not being the same height. Each small brass hinge is extremely crude and look to be fairly handmade. The lock on the main desk part appears to be British, with a crude English coat of arms etched into it. I'm also wondering though if this piece is British or American though, perhaps the locks were exported and the piece was crafted in America. It's also not very tall either (maybe a little over three feet tall), and less wide than most secretary desks I see on Google. I also haven't seen any pieces with the two doors on the bottom that mine has. Also, what wood does it appear to use, and what type of wood is the veneer appear to be. The veneer is also very thick compared to the veneer I've seen being used on furniture from around the Civil War era.

The desk after some fixing up

The inside of the desk, with velvet likely added much later

The inside of one of the main drawers

The dovetails on one of the main drawers

The dovetails on one of the small drawers inside the desk when you open the top

The bottom of a drawer, I think it might be a photo of one of the small ones from inside of the desk.

The dovetails of another one of the small drawers inside the desk when you open it



Thanks for the help!

 

Nope! Just some random pieces I had lying around that I thought would look nice in there.

 

Wow! Love it ❤

 

Nice find. And a great job getting it out of the dump.

My guess is mid 1800s.
@James Conrad @Ghopper1924 @verybrad

 

English, slant lid desk, second half 19th century, looks like mahogany veneer with oak secondary.

 

Think James has this pegged.

 

Unfortunately, very little value in desks of any kind these days, they lost their original function and haven't found a new niche in the modern world.

 

Still....tossed in the scrap heap? So sad.

 

I'm with Cluttered re: mid 19th century ca. 1840-60. Never saw one quite like it. Not worth alot, perhaps, but only a barbarian would throw that away...

 

Is sad kinda but you know, can't use it round the house, can't sell it, can't give it away = not a lot of options there.
Antique Desks are in a bad place these days, their function is based on a paper world and that world went nite nite. Until someone finds a new use for them they will struggle in the market place.

 

I could find a use for it around the house but maybe hard to sell.

 

There is still a healthy market for antique desks here in the UK, especially pedestal desks as they are more useful for modern needs. With the likelihood that working from home (due to Covid-19) is here to stay in some form even when the crisis is over, this market may actually prosper as people decide they really could do better than an Ikea table......There are even a number of antique retailers in the UK who specialise specifically in antique desks such is the demand. As with most things, it is the top end of the market that holds value, the low quality pieces are indeed changing hands for low prices. Good pieces are sought after by the traditional professions; barristers, doctors, accountants etc.

 

Very nice..age still in question..?