Heywood Wakefield Desk, ca. 1940
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GUEST:
I grew up with this desk. This was in my parents' living room. Mother always said it was a Heywood Wakefield, and it's known as a knee-hole desk. I believe it's birch or maple.
APPRAISER:
Well, let me see what I can tell you and embellish what your mother has told you, which is actually quite correct. It is a Heywood Wakefield desk. It's an early version of the Heywood Wakefield. It is called, in the trade, a knee-hole desk. The designer of the desk is a person by the name of Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky. This particular desk, he designed an earlier desk in 1936. This is a 1940 version, which would be compatible with what your mom said, that she bought it in 1941.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
The feet are different, and the size is a little bit different, than the production desks that starts right after the war, in 1946. It's also why you don't have a branded mark that says Heywood Wakefield. The very traditional eagle mark starts in 1946. It is all solid wood; the wood is definitely birch. They started out in the first year or so in the mid-1930s using maple and birch and then switched all to birch by the late 1930s. So it's a great condition, well-made, streamlined, as any Heywood Wakefield desk. It's finished on all four sides. It has been refinished. It really doesn't hurt the value that much at all because they did an excellent job on it.
GUEST:
Good.
APPRAISER:
There would be a plus if there was an original finish. It looks good.
GUEST:
Thank you.
APPRAISER:
And it should go on for many more years.
GUEST:
Thank you.
APPRAISER:
Valuation? I'd say, in it's present state, somewhere in the neighborhood of between $1,200 to $1,500. It's a great desk.
GUEST:
Thank you very much.
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