In the early summer of 2006, a customer brought me this antique desk for some minor repairs and to be refinished. One of his main concerns was trying to ascertain its age. Based on his knowledge of family ownership and several clues I observed from the desk, my best guess would make it about 75 - 100 years old. There's no doubt it was built by an individual versus being a production piece. I found layout marks in the wood that were made using a marking gauge for marking the joinery. Square-cut nails were used throughout the casework, which made their appearance in 1819.

The upper unit, with the cubby holes and three small drawers, was pine as were the drawer sides, bottoms, and backs in the lower unit. I first thought the entire desk was pine but stripping and sanding revealed it was poplar. The pine was used as a secondary wood. The old finish was shellac, which was damaged and very dark. The leather covering the writing surface was in very bad condition and need replacing. Originally there were wooden insert escutcheons on each of the lower unit's drawers and one on the front of the drop-down writing surface. Three out of the four were missing pieces and my customer decided to replace them.

After gluing splits in the lower unit's drawer sides, I stripped the old finish. I drilled out the old wooden escutcheons to prepare to install new "old brass" finished escutcheons. After a complete sanding, I stained all the poplar with a honey brown dye. I followed this by applying many hand-rubbed coats of oil before giving it several coats of wax and buffing. 

The old hardware like the locks and hinges was removed, cleaned, and reinstalled. I installed new knobs on the small drawers in the cubby unit and the base unit, applied a new piece of leather on the writing surface, installed a small ball catch to prevent the drop-down writing surface from opening on its own, and installed the new escutcheons. The honey color combined with the close-to-the-wood sheen of the hand-rubbed finish made this antique look truly rich and warm. My customer was very pleased with the results!

Below is a list of thumbnail photos you can click on for a larger view. 

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