Enduring Antique Desks are Today’s Best Buys

Unlike numerous other furniture items, desks never go out of fashion, antique or modern, and there is always a buyers’ demand for these highly functional pieces. In fact, many homes today have a space or room which doubles as a home office, a place where they keep and use a computer for business purposes, pay household bills, manage the budget and/or conduct social communication.

In the Home

For hundreds of years, the desk was where students did their homework and studies, activities which have largely remained unchanged for a long, long time. Of all furniture items, the humble desk is one that works as hard as all who use it, which typically includes everyone in the family. Buying a solid, sturdy antique piece makes a lot of sense; it has endured more than 100 years of use and it will probably serve you and your descendants for even longer.

Antique office desks were heavy, well made, handcrafted and of solid wood, which is undoubtedly why these pieces have endured as well as they have. Here, the head of the home attended to the household accounts, and his wife wrote letters, perhaps composed some verse or poetry, and issued written invitations to social occasions.

At the Office and At School

Once commerce began to be conducted from business premises, separate from the home, every shopkeeper and tradesman sought to acquire a desk at which to work. Schools were equipped with smaller versions, suitable for pupils, and the headmaster always had the largest, most imposing desk in the entire school.

Right up until fairly late in the 20th century, when home computers were still unheard of, letter writing was the most common form of communicating with business associates and distant friends and relatives – to the extent that letter writing was part of the schools’ language curriculum.

Pupils were taught to write correct business and social letters, and woe betide the scholar who did not know the difference between the two; they may well have been sent to the headmaster’s office to stand before his big, intimidating desk or worse still, instructed to bend over it, to be smacked upon the bottom.

Points to Consider

Generally speaking, antiques combine very well with modern furniture if put together tastefully and displayed appropriately. One does not necessarily have to furnish the entire home in one or the other style and this literally makes it almost impossible to go wrong by introducing an antique desk.

Heavy desks were usually manufactured in several separate pieces for easier handling and moving, and then re-assembled when in place. Typically, the two cabinet sections with drawers and/or doors were separate from one another and the top surface.

The front panels of antique drawers were dove-tailed to join to the side panels, not glued and clamped as is the case with modern, mass produced furniture. Hand carving featured extensively, adding decorative elements; skilled carvers, woodworkers and cabinet makers were much sought after for their creative talents and abilities to transform wood into functional, decorative works of art.

Imported Antiques Supplied Countrywide

Although our imported antiques are housed and displayed at our store in Pretoria, we are able to supply countrywide, if required. You are assured of buying genuine BADA certified desks and other fine, top-quality period furniture when you shop with us.