US Navy Desk Info?

I recently acquired this old super heavy desk and when I got it home and was cleaning it I found these two stamped brass plates. One saying:

US NAVY PROPERTY
254
contract n0bs 50-sub-1

and another with the just the number 4068

I was about it modify it a to fit this room better but now I’m wondering if it’s more valuable than I originally thought. Any thoughts?

 

God Bless the Navy !!
They rode it hard and put it away wet ....

a real fixer upper......with little value in todays marketplace.

@Ghopper1924
@verybrad

will likely say the same..

 

The Navy and other services had them by the thousands. It was a standard design. My local ReStore has a hard time giving away similar desks.

 

Cool so I can feel good about cutting it up a little then

 

Painting it, decorating it, or otherwise messing with it. Have fun!

 

@komokwa , I do say the same.
I appreciate your sensitivity, but don’t worry about affecting the value on this one. Alter away!

 

Oh, dear. I know that desk. We had one for awhile. We've since "upgraded" (downgraded in my opinion) to the gray metal variety. When they were redoing the offices at the base my Yeoman husband came home with one. Heavy? You got that right! And so darned attractive. The only good thing I can say about the 'new' gray one is that he has so much paperwork on it you can't really see it! After 4 years in the Fleet and 27 in the Reserves I let him have his nostalgia piece even if it doesn't fit with my idea of decor.

 

You're a good wife.

Debora

 

Debora I agree Bev you are a good wife. No way, no how, would never happen. Just like the wooden carvings, along with a mirrored dragon picture, & so many other oddities my husband brought home from Korea & wherever else the Army took him.

 

For perspective... The Wagon Wheel Coffee Table from 'When Harry Met Sally.'



Debora

 

My mother and father met in the Army in WWII so I have that military upbringing. I have to let him have some little corner of the house. LOL. The only reason we don't still have that two ton wooden desk is when we moved into the family homestead (1850) in 1990 no one wanted to help pick it up! Next drill weekend he brought home (in Seabee terms he "liberated" it) the gray one and we still have it.

 

My husband traveled all over, he will proudly tell people he has no taste when picking gifts for me or things for the house. We had the metal one in our old house a parting gift when he didn’t re-up, as they say overstock supply. A good friend took that & an organ. I offered to pay him for taking it. When he was stationed in Massachusetts he & his buddies favored a bar that had baseball glove shaped stools, when he moved to another unit another state they gave him one & that we still have. He let the kids take what they wanted, the rest is upstairs in one of the rooms.I wouldn’t make him get rid of anything but that desk caused more injuries than anything. Our eldest son’s first set of stitches, to my broken foot when I couldn’t get a drawer open, to a concussion. That I was happy to part with…the rest just blends in now. He was MI so other than Korea I have no idea where he had been. Our youngest the same - we never know where he is when he deploys.

 

Jon's last duty station was the Iceland Defense Force Joint Reserve Unit in the 90s. He worked in the Admiral's office and there was an eye scan to get into his section. The base was closed down and now Iceland uses it as apartments.

 

Just seeing this. Agree with all the above. Virtually the same as a teacher's school desk. I have, on occasion, taken such desks and split them into the two pedestals and fitted with smaller tops. Much easier to move and functional in a lot of situations.