The DW and I have always wanted a roll-top desk. For the style we wanted, anything new was out of the question. Since it wasn’t much of a priority we asked the DW’s parents to keep an eye out when they were at household and antique auctions for something that might go under the radar. Nothing.

Then, a few weeks ago, I was killing time one night running through craigslist ads when a photo caught my attention – it was an old roll top desk in the style we were looking for, but painted. It didn’t quite add up, as the asking price was about 10% of anything thing else we’d looked at previously. After discussing it with the DW, I shot the owner an email asking for the history of the desk. His response was that he thought the desk was from the 80’s, but he wasn’t sure as he had just recently acquired it and had no use for it. Again, it didn’t add up. I scheduled a time to go see it.

It didn’t take long to decide what to do after seeing the desk. The seller purchased abandoned storage units and was just trying to move a desk he found along the way (along with hundreds of boxes of clothes). He claimed to have no furniture knowledge. Clearly, as the desk wasn’t from the 80’s. The paint was light enough to tell that it was solid oak – everywhere. All of the drawers were dove-tailed at the corners. And, it was trimmed on all four sides. The desk probably pre-dates WWII (or so I’ve been told by some of the people who I’ve had look at it). The paint likely is covering any type of branding that may have originally been on the desk. If we ever get crazy enough to strip the paint and refinish it we might find it. Until then, we’ll just let it set as is.