One of the things we are always looking for is furniture…garage sales, estate sales, antique shops, flea markets, etc. We love old furniture. The craftsmanship of most antique furniture pieces is honestly quite astounding. We gravitate toward pieces from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s…think of how long ago that was! And most might need a few repairs but are still usable. And in our home, every antique piece serves some sort of purpose and most often that is not just decor.
On a recent trip to the Midwest, we haunted a few antique shops on our way home…a common practice for us. This time, we found a piece of furniture we couldn’t pass up. This old piece was both unique, in decently good shape and priced low! SOLD!
The piece is a secretary with 3 carved details and an intact leaded glass window. It is made of quartersawn oak stained medium dark and has both a glassed-in bookcase area on the left and a storage area on the bottom right, as well as the desk area for which it is named.
The storage area has an interesting detail in that it appears from the outside to be a drawer and a door but is in actuality just one door.
The inside of the secretary portion reveals an organizer of sorts that appears to be missing a drawer.
The leaded glass is in good shape, with just one cracked portion way down in the left corner (just barely visible in this photo).
The three different carved details, which are also different than the leaded glass pattern, make the piece very unique, which was also one of our reasons for purchasing it.
We are looking forward to fixing this piece up. A new mirror, some stabilizing underneath, a new back to hold the piece square, a drawer for the interior desk organizer and some touch up to the finish will have this looking great.
And as always, we will use it. Most likely as a bookshelf and maybe storage for piano books, as well as the desk area that might be nice to keep a laptop and small desk items. Who knew what it would be used for when they built it way back when!
The pictures aren’t great in this post due to some lighting issues but stay tuned for when this piece goes from nice to BEAUTIFUL, with pictures to do it justice!