Arts and Crafts Period Mission Oak Drop Front Desk, circa 1920

This desk has a drop front leaf above two drawers and two door compartments. On the interior of the drop front leaf are two small horizontal compartments above two small drawers, between which are 5 vertical dividers. There is plenty of storage in this compact piece. The desk dates to circa 1920.

There is a manufacturer's model number 576 stamped on the back.

On the back of the desk is a paper tag that reads:
Grand Rapids Chair Co.,
Manufacturer of Fancy Furniture
Grand Rapids, Mich.

Below the paper tag is a metal tag that reads:
The Denver Dry Goods Co.
Furniture Department

The Grand Rapids Bookcase and Chair Company had its heydays between 1896 and the 1950s. It outlasted most other companies that made Mission Oak furniture. The company inaugurated its mission furniture line in early 1900 and named it Lifetime Furniture. The company advertised that it made "only that which is useful and beautiful in its plain sturdiness." Plain sturdiness was a good description as Lifetime Furniture was made to last a lifetime and has done so, now exceeding 100 years of use.

Condition: good condition

Provenance: this Arts and Crafts Period Mission Oak Drop Front Desk, circa 1920 is from the collection of a client from Nevada

Recommended Reading: ARTS AND CRAFTS The Early Modernist Movement in American Decorative Arts 1894-1923 by Bruce Johnson

TAGS: ARTS AND CRAFTS PERIOD FURNITURE, Grand Rapids Bookcase and Chair Company