Looking for details on this desk and chair my great grandmother left for me

Hi Krysten! Welcome to Antiquers!

I have a daughter with your name only spelled Kristin!

YOur desk is quite unique. I'm thinking around the 20's, but wait for the furniture people to post.

 

That inlay looks like Sorrento ware - close up, please. I'm inclined to agree on 1920s ish.

 

both lovely.....

 

Did Sorrento make desks? My cursory research doesn't suggest they did, but I'm a newbie.

 

Wow so impressed

 

Isn't that marquetry? It's giving me "Italy - Mediterranean"

20s

Means nothing, cuz this is actually much older - but

 

I'm talking Mildred Pierce bungalow Italian/Mediterranean

 

Sorry, you're right @Ownedbybear - I thought you were referring to Sirocco

 

The carcass may have been made elsewhere in Italy, panels were sent all over.

 

Not A Clue! but cool looking desk & chair.

 

Welcome, Krysten.
I love your set.

I agree, it could be Sorrento, and we need a close up.

The panel could have been ready made in Sorrento for use elsewhere. They had such a huge production of inlaid ware, also for export.

 

Think circa 1920 as well. History would be helpful if known.

 

I posted a close-up earlier up in the thread for another member who asked for one

 

Oh, right, I didn't see that, you are very modest with that thumbnail. Here it is full image:


The tower looks more Alpine to me, so northern Italy and parts of Austria and Switzerland. But Sorrento didn't just make scenes of the Campania region, so it could be Sorrento made.

 

My nonna recently passed and left it to me. She was born in 1923 in San Francisco to immigrants from Northern Italy (Piemonte, to be exact). Her parents come over from Italy to SF in 1912. They didn't have a lot of money (her parents were a seamstress and a cook) so I would be impressed if this is something they brought with them from Italy. That seems rather unlikely. I do have a full spreadsheet of all of the items they brought with them on the ship laying around somewhere that I could go through to be sure, however. My italian is poor so it would take some time.

My nonna stayed in the San Francisco Bay Area her entire life. She lived to 95. She was an art dealer in San Francisco in her 20s (the 1940s) and later became a successful real estate agent. She married in 1951 here, to a fairly wealthy man who had long roots in the San Francisco area. It's possible that this desk came from her mother-in-law, but we really don't know. Her mother-in-law's father owned several gold mines in Sierra County, so they came from old money. There's nothing inside it except for some pictures of me as a child and as an adult, as she had always planned to give this desk to me. She's been telling me she was leaving it to me since I was very young. There's also a 1932 edition of Little Women inside of it, but she had a tendency to put books she thought I would like in different places (some with old letters from the late 20s through early 50s inside of them!).

 

That is so nice, Krysten.

Northern Italy again, partly alpine. Maybe your nonna bought it because the inlay reminded her of pictures her parents had?

That is wonderful, you never know, maybe this is on the list after all.

 

Your nonna sounds like a lovely woman. Sorry for your loss.

 

Hi Krysten and Welcome.
It's a most unusual desk and chair. I am sure the clever and intuitive people here will help you fins out more.