SOLD Wooton Cabinet Secretary Desk

RARE & FABULOUS WOOTON “EXTRA GRADE” CABINET SECRETARY PATENT DESK (1874-1884). Indianapolis, Indiana. The Wooton desk originated in Indianapolis in 1874 with a patent by William S. Wooton for an “improvement in secretaries” that would become known as the “Wooton Patent Cabinet Office Secretary”. This exact desk we are offering for sale is illustrated on the cover of WOOTON PATENT DESKS, A Place for Everything & Everything in its Place, published by The Indiana State Museum and The Oakland Museum, edited by J. Camille Showalter and Janice Driesbach. Copyright 1983. The book was produced for a very special museum exhibition originated by the Oakland Museum and the Indiana State Museum, April 1983 – June 1985. Our desk was also the same one used on the special broadside used to promote this special exhibition.

This Extra Grade example and others manufactured by the Wooton Desk Manufacturing Company are nicely illustrated and fully described in the publication. See Plates 6 and 7, pp 68-69. Wooton Desks were expensive pieces of office equipment for the time. In the 1880s, the Superior Grade model cost $500-$700, (almost a year’s wages for a common laborer in those days) while the Extra Grade model offered here was $200-$250. The list of clients for the Extra Grade model include John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould and Ulysses S. Grant. The “Superior” and “Ordinary” grade desks were phased out of production between 1880 and 1884, while the “Standard” and “Extra” patterns were retained and were augmented by the newer “Queen Anne” and “Eastlake” models. In July of 1893 the original company closed, and the patents were sold. The “Extra Grade” model is in three parts made from black walnut harvested in Indiana. The trim and accent veneers are of Spanish cedar and bird’s eye and burl maple. Each hinged door is fitted with shelves and compartments. The left door is fitted with an arrangement of four shelves above a row of seven small maple drawers over a central door flanked by a bank of four medium drawers and three vertical shelves, all above two rows of four, square dovetailed drawers with horizontal shelves beneath. The right door is fitted with four rows of 10 square cardboard letter drawers with brass ring pulls. The central case is surmounted by an ornate carved crest in the Renaissance Revival taste. The interior has a full width writing surface that drops down when the locking mechanism is released to form a horizontal desk surface. The interior is fitted with a row of open shelves, three maple drawers at the center with incised carved decoration, above an opening for inkwell and pen trays, flanked by an arrangement of six drawer. Beneath the writing surface is a bank of four drawers flanked by horizontal and vertical shelves. When closed, the front of the cabinet displays four recessed and molded burl walnut panels with cast gilt grass letter slots. The top panels are curved giving the illusion of a barrel or cylinder roll. The end of each outer section, when open, are beautifully finished in bird’s eye maple panels with ebonized incised carved elements. All of the cast brass hinges and locking mechanisms are original and in fine condition. NOTE: A copy of the original book Wooton Patent Desks as well as an original poster displaying this exact desk which was used as the feature example for the special exhibit of Wooton Desks in 1983 accompanies this item and will be given to the buyer. SIZE: 77” h x 45” w x 32” d. CONDITION: Excellent original condition with rich patina with minor molding work on the top crest and the bronze mail slot on the left door has been replaced. Shipping to the New England states would be $475.00 and outside New England please email for quote.