Value of an Antique Writing Desk?

Judy
Gold Post Medal for All Time! 677 Posts

August 17, 20180 found this helpful

I cant find the company, so it may be out of business. Your best bet is to bring the pictures to a dealer.

Lyndabuffalo5

August 17, 20180 found this helpful

Hi Judy,
Thank you for taking the time to answer my guestion. Now I have another question. How do I find a dealer? Lynda

PS I live around Buffalo NY.

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Pghgirl40
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August 17, 20180 found this helpful

www.furniturecityhistory.org/.../colonial-manufacturing-co

Here's a link about the company, which was based in Michigan and closed in 1983.

If you get to the Smithsonian, they have some of their catalogs on file:

americanhistory.si.edu/.../SILNMAHTL_12186

You may be able to find an original ad for the item! That would be cool!

There are lots of Pinterest pages devoted to the comoany's secretary style writing tables, which is one of the names I have heard this style of desk called. The legs I call spinit style...like piano...I have heard some desks like this refered to as piano style because of how it opens.

You may want to sort thru the Pinterest pages to pin down the age of your piece, which is lovely, by the way. I adore this style desk!!

You have a neat find. Some of the pieces still have value, but not all. I don't see an exact match at the moment in eBay's sold section. If you check back often, you can get an idea of what the are valued at in today's market.

Thanks for sharing this sweet item!

cybergrannie
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August 19, 20180 found this helpful

There are quite a few of this style desk available so it is not rare and most were made during the approximate same era and most were mahogany.
This style is usually referred to as; spinet, writing or secretary desk.
Colonial Mfg. Company was only well known for making all kinds of expensive clocks and making side furniture was a very tiny portion of their business and most pieces were reproduced over and over until a small change was made that could still be produced with the same cuts and dies of the previous style piece.

• Many people seem to think the Colonial Manufacturing Co. desks date back to the 1800's but their company history shows they only started making anything other than clocks in 1911 but never made very many pieces/styles until 1950's (until 1959). Here is a quote from their history pages:
• "The company introduced decorative French and Italian Provincial furniture during the 1950s along with its clocks. In 1959 the company eliminated furniture manufacturing and concentrated on the
• more profitable clocks and updated its clock offerings during the 1960's."
• There is some history of this style desk as well as very similar desks being sold over the the past several years (other than eBay) and most sold for $00-$125. Most people do not understand that bulky furniture is very expensive to ship so the majority of pieces are sold within the area where the desk is located. Larger cities will always have more changes of selling quickly and usually for more money than a smaller city - but this does differ with the type of people who live in the small cities.
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  This is one of the reasons it would be very difficult to offer a qualified value even if the desk is being sold for "this or that" price (where was it located?).
• If you Google Colonial Manufacturing Company you will see several very similar desks - one or two very close style to yours - some have been sold but the picture may still be seen.
• www.google.com/search?q=colonial+manufacturing+company...:
• You can check out these sold items; some from past years but still about the same value as today:
• 2014:
• www.ebth.com/.../1377569-colonial-manufacturing-mahogany...
• www.ebth.com/.../1003561-mahogany-spinet-top-writing...
• www.ebth.com/.../2537953-colonial-mfg-co-solid-mahogany...
• Sold in 2018:
• offerup.com/.../
• Information:
• www.instappraisal.com/.../solid-mahogany-desk
• www.varagesale.com/.../uujaa22k-antique-colonial-mfg-co...
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• As you can see - sold prices are what most list as the value of an item but that is only a small part of the true value. You may want to ask for a free appraisal and see what someone in the antique field will tell you.
• www.instappraisal.com/how-long-does-it-take-me-get-free...
• www.antique-shop.com/.../index.php?board=2.0
• antiques.lovetoknow.com/Free_Antique_Appraisals_Online

If you are really interested in the company history, they produced several books that can still be purchased today or maybe downloaded for free.
Here is a 12 page (of 45 pages) link that describes their history but it is a very boring article unless you are really into the history of their clock manufacturing.

docs.nawcc.org/.../407_34_46.pdf