Broyhill Brasilia desk?

I frequently refinish furniture as a hobby and fell in love with this piece when I found it for $40 on Craigslist. I was looking for inspiration on how to refinish until I came across desks identical to mine selling for upwards of $900.

- Is it the real deal? On further inspection I found no stamps or stickers other than a white sticker with no print on the inside of a drawer.

- Is it really possible that I found such a gem on Craigslist?
- Should I refinish? Pay a pro to refinish, or leave it alone?

 

Looks right to me but I'm only going on what's online, never seen one in the flesh. Like to see the sides to be sure but the front handles look correct. Think you got lucky even if it isn't Broyhill

 

@verybrad

 

Looks right to me. Looks like it really just needs some finish restoration rather than a full refinish job. Value is very market specific. Here in my semi-rural Midwest location, I would be lucky to get $200.00 for this. We just don't have the market that appreciates such things. A $900.00 price on-line might be realistic if one finds the right buyer and is willing to ship. Would also hope it is mint or nearly so at that kind of price.

 

This is only my personal opinion, and I am not a furniture expert at all, but here goes:

Broyhill was never really a high-end furniture company. There was a time when they made some decent, solid wood furniture, but even their "Premier" lines (including Brasilia) were made for America's then-growing middle class.

The Brasilia line, which was sold from 1962 into the early 1970's, was meant to reflect a certain mid-century style, with strong influences from the architectural designs of architect Oscar Niemeyer, who had been working for some time on new public buildings in Brasilia.

The thing is, Niemeyer later designed some furniture (which continues to demand very high prices,) but he did NOT design the Brasilia line for Broyhill. Over the years, his name has been erroneously connected with the Broyhill line, and sellers put far higher price tags on the pieces than they "deserve", if that makes any sense.

Basically, the Brasilia desk shown here is a decent, solid piece of mid-century wooden furniture. The photo doesn't show whether the "carved" sides and the caning in the back are in decent shape, but the rest of the piece does show significant wear.

Nonetheless, $40 was a good price for this used desk, especially with the current popularity of mid-century design in furniture. Still, it does need some TLC, and fixing it up for yourself is certainly the option I would choose. I don't think you would be hurting its value in any way by restoring it a bit.