Posted 12 years ago
collector4…
(153 items)
Here is a Vintage Desk of unknown type. The desk is wood and cast iron and the top opens up from the front for storage. The front face has a slot in the wood to pass paper through. The cast iron has initials, but unknown what they stand for. If anyone knows what this was used for and when, please let me know. Also, the top of the desk has an addition to it with the same cast iron initials.
rocker-sd,
Thanks for the love.
Did you see the one I posted yesterday? If you ever get any info on it, please share!
Did anyone ever find out who the manufacturer of this desk is? I've only seen that stand/legs on one other table and this is the only one I found online.
Thanks!
RB
I have just found this site. I also have a desk like this one, but mine has a hole in the top with metal around it, I guess for an inkwell. Mine doesn't have the extra pc on top. Same marking on the scroll legs and has the slot cut out in front face. Does anyone have any information on it? Thanks,
The desk was manufactured for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLI Co. in cast iron legs). It was used by insurance agents to write policies.
any further info found
Hi, Niece. :-)
This is a pretty old post, and most of the CW S&T users involve seem inactive (the OP seems not to have been active for ten years now).
CW fans of this desk got lucky when one-time commenter IronJeff identified it as a Metropolitan Life Insurance Company desk six years ago.
Indeed, if you use "MLI CO desk" as your search criteria, you'll see others like it, e.g.:
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/8sy80r/what_is_this_old_desk_i_found_in_a_dump_i_can/
Since the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company was founded in 1868, these desks couldn't be any older than that, right?:
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/companies/metlife/222653/
Who actually made this desks? One guess might be the Haney School Furniture Company, because while it got its start making school desks, it evetually branched out and started making desks for other purposes:
http://www.furniturecityhistory.org/company/3619/haney-manufacturing-co
If you have one of these desks, you would be in a position to examine it for identifing casting features.
A'ight. Now that I have a bit more time:
This site has one of the MLI Co. desks, but at the time of the posting, the author wasn't sure whether the initials in the 'monogram' on the legs stood for "Metropolitan Life Insurance Company." The listing gives details about the inkwell:
https://itiques.net/antique-cast-iron-school-desk/
The author opines that the vintage is circa 1880, and I'll buy that, because per MetLife's own website, the company barely survived the 1870s (there was a depression), but by 1880, it was thriving:
https://www.metlife.com/asiaagency/en/about-metlife/metlife-your-trusted-partner/
I decided to poke around a bit more to see if I could narrow things down by investigating that MLI Co. monogram.
I did -- if you think circa 1880 - 1962 is narrowed down. };-)
Here is a March 1962 luncheon plate made for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company:
https://shopinthevintagekitchen.com/products/vintage-1960s-metropolitan-life-insurance-company-luncheon-plate-mayer-china-1962-restaurantware