GUEST: This is a desk. It came to me from my third great-grandparents, who lived in Arlington, Massachusetts.
APPRAISER: Well, it's interesting that you say your family's from Massachusetts, because this desk is a distinctive form for Massachusetts. It's what we call a Federal figured mahogany ladies writing desk, and was made between about 1790 and 1810. It's an amazing form. This is really high quality cabinet making. I just love this bookmatched veneer on the doors. It's got this great swirling grain. We've got this nice, distinctive line inlay with a bellflower, you've got this wonderful shaded triangular border, and what's really another nice touch is if you look below the border, they've got this kind of tiger-striped mahogany. Additionally, if we move to the inlaid escutcheon, they've used figured maple, which gets this extra vibrant tiger-striped grain. And the selection of the wood is amazing. It's almost a lyrical quality to it that draws your eye up the drawers as the grain goes back from left to right and continues up. It's a really magnificent piece. If we open up the desk door here, you've got a nice arrangement of what we call short drawers and these wonderful pigeon holes with the cyma curve-shaped aprons. If you open up your door, you'll find a distinctive characteristic. Your ancestor that used this was likely right-handed. This was where she kept ink. Nothing on the left, but over here, we can show the writing surface, and this is how it operates. We can tell that it's been refinished, but it's been gently refinished. There's still good figure and color to the wood; it hasn't been scrubbed. The brass has been replaced at some point in its life. It would have had oval-plated brasses at one time. But overall, it's a superb quality piece. If I had to put an insurance value on it today, I'd safely say insure it for about $10,000 in today's market.
GUEST: Wow, great.
APPRAISER: It's a fantastic piece.
