Exceedingly Rare Antique AMERICAN 18th Century Military Campaign Mahogany Desk

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Exceedingly Rare Antique AMERICAN 18th Century Military Campaign Mahogany Desk:
$2495.00

Exceedingly Rare Antique AMERICAN 18th Century Military Campaign Mahogany Desk
We are Proud to offer to you a Very Exceedingly Rare Philadelphia or New Jersey military Campaign Desk circa 1790\'s
Please View our slide show for this piece here:Antique American Military Campaign Desk 1780\'svia Flickr
2 Parts.Upper Desk: Comprises of a fold out writing platform, with 2 removable flat boards, and 3 drawers. the ends have Chippendale batwing brass heavy duty carrying handles. Mahogany wood construction, with poplar secondary woods. The case is all blind dovetailed, and the drawers are alldovetailed construction with single board poplar flat drawer bottoms. The left most drawer retains 2 of the original cut glass inkbottles (one damaged)
Lower Part: Cherry tapered leg base, with a drawer. The drawer is all dovetailed construction with yellow pine secondary woods. The drawer slides areremovable for transport. The hardware on the drawer is replaced. The legs are mortised and pinned into the side front and back rails, all consisting of 1 1/2\" thick cherry. The side rails that are attached to the base are made of mahogany on the sides and yellow pine on the back. All have hand cut nails holding them onto the base.
We are confident that the desk was made in Philadelphia (or its environs) around 1770 to the 1790\'s. The base, however, is a slightly different story. Webelieve the base was made FOR the top to rest on, and was made by a country cabinet shop; klunky, thick, and heavy woods, unrefined dovetails on the drawer construction (as opposed to the fine construction of the top, made by a well trained cabinet shop in a city manner with very fine wood, thinly cut, fine hand cut dovetails, and very talented blind cut dovetails in the case). The blind cut dovetails are impressive and very difficult to master on such a fine scale as this - it took a very talented city cabinet shop to make such a thing, and fine, imported English cut glass ink bottles were only available in cities. The use of poplar in thesecondary woods of the desk indicates Philadelphia or Pennsylvania origins.
The base is interesting, all cherry and yellow pine. The use of yellow pine is very common in NJ and points south. Webelievethe base was made in or near New Jersey/Delaware/Maryland slightly after the desk top was made. It was not made by the same hand that made the desk, but we are confident that the base was made for the desk. On the base board of the inside of the desk case, there are 3 screw holes on the right side, and 3 on the left, and all 6 of these holes line up perfectly. The side rails on the side of the base allow the desk case to slide in to the base smoothly. It was not unusual to have a fine desk for a military captain or a general made in the city, and the base made elsewhere to suit his needs. One last point to note - the drawer slides for the base drawer are completly removeable and fit inside the drawer on an angle. The drawer slides are made of yellow pine with stops that are made of mahogany. We believe the drawer stops are replacements, and the originals were pegged on with wooden pegs.
Condition: There have been a few repairs, mostnotably that the writing surfaces have been replaced. The writing surface hinges must have broke out at one point, and the writing surface could have been considerably ink stained (indicated by the broken ink bottle), so they were simply discarded and new ones made. The hinge holes have been slugged and patched over. The drawers retain the original brass loop handle, and the sides have the original brass carrying handles. The batwing brass on the base drawer has beenreplaced - it originally had a single knob (compression evidenceremains). Elements in the ink drawer have been replaced for modern use, such as pencil tray. The entire desk was refinished about 30-40 years ago.
Key: We do have the original key for the top desk section, however the top half of the key has been broken off. It does still work, and the desk can be locked.
Dimensions: 26\" across by 17\" deep. the desk part is 8\" tall, the entire piece is 37 1/4\" tall overall. with the top open, the desk is 26\" deep, with a 31 3/4\" writing height.
Shipping: Contact us today for a quote! we use only Blanket wrap services, such as TSC Moving, Rick Ships LLC, and PlyCon Transportation. we will arrange the shipping for you, all you have to do is sit back and wait for your furniture to arrive. we do ask you to ve patient, as the process can take up to and including 6-8 weeks depending on location and scheduling demands. we will keep you \"In the Loop\" with constant communication as th whats happening and when and where. we also ask that you be flexible with the delivery companies on delivery day. we no not ship furniture internationally as of yet.