Help identifying a piece of furniture

[BradyS]

Good day!

I kindly ask your help in identifying the piece of furniture in the attached photo. Any kind of advice is appreciated. From how these pieces are called to an idea of age or where to get further info. I'm unable to research it because I don't know how they are called in English.

Much appreciated,
Brad

 

[BradyS]

Sorry for the poor quality. It's some sort of bench with a writing top to the left, a drawer underneath. Similar to those windows benches but my guesstimate is that it was used in a different part of the house.

 

[akirk]

telephone bench?
telephone sat on the higher bit and you sat on the bench to make your calls...

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=telephone+bench&atb=v303-1&iax=images&ia=images

 

[Etaf]

and the cupboard section had telephone Directories , yellow pages etc
we Had one in our hallway , back in the late 70's

 

[Sofa]

We had pretty much exactly the same unit in our hall with a telephone on it.

 

[Cabinetman]

Yes a telephone seat, gone out of style now but if you were wanting a seat to write at this is a Windsor chair with a writing area, quite popular in America.
Ian

 

[BradyS]

I thank you all very much, it is indeed a telephone bench. I will add more photos shortly and maybe you can extend the help in clarifying the period of the piece. Shame on me, I do restoration work but my style/period identification skills are very limited, although I started to read and learn.

In respect of this bench, I suspect it's from the second part of the 19th Century, maybe Louis XVI or Napoleon III? The legs are fluted and has a brass drawer handle (tarnished for now). The legs and drawer are solid wood, it seems to be beech but I'm not entirely sure yet. Rest is made from plywood, heavy and of very good quality. Doesn't seem to be stained but finished with colored lacquer. The leather in the telephone section is identical to that used in military campaign writing slopes from the 19th Century. The upholstery seems to be jacquard but it is very very worn. However, had to be of great craftmanship as the colors are bright and well preserved.

 

[BradyS]

Here are the extra photos.

 

[paulrbarnard]

telephone bench?
telephone sat on the higher bit and you sat on the bench to make your calls...

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=telephone+bench&atb=v303-1&iax=images&ia=images

Beat me to it. Very popular in their day

 

[paulrbarnard]

I thank you all very much, it is indeed a telephone bench. I will add more photos shortly and maybe you can extend the help in clarifying the period of the piece. Shame on me, I do restoration work but my style/period identification skills are very limited, although I started to read and learn.

In respect of this bench, I suspect it's from the second part of the 19th Century, maybe Louis XVI or Napoleon III? The legs are fluted and has a brass drawer handle (tarnished for now). The legs and drawer are solid wood, it seems to be beech but I'm not entirely sure yet. Rest is made from plywood, heavy and of very good quality. Doesn't seem to be stained but finished with colored lacquer. The leather in the telephone section is identical to that used in military campaign writing slopes from the 19th Century. The upholstery seems to be jacquard but it is very very worn. However, had to be of great craftmanship as the colors are bright and well preserved.

If I was to guess without looking at it I would say 1960’s or 70’s. Late 19th century seems too early for a dedicated telephone bench, after all your butler answered the phone then brought it over to you

Edit: google says their hay day was 1930’s and 40’s. The telephone was invented in 1876 so definitely not before that

 

[Cabinetman]

I’m just curious as to why you are interested really, if someone wants one making then fair enough, but the one you have, to be frank, is a mass produced 1970’s piece that hasn’t stood the test of time at all well, it’s also out of time, in that people wouldn’t want one if you were to start making them.
Or perhaps do people still use a phone on a wire in Romania?
Sorry Ian

 

[BradyS]

I’m just curious as to why you are interested really, if someone wants one making then fair enough, but the one you have, to be frank, is a mass produced 1970’s piece that hasn’t stood the test of time at all well, it’s also out of time, in that people wouldn’t want one if you were to start making them.
Or perhaps do people still use a phone on a wire in Romania?
Sorry Ian

I'm obviously interested because I work as a restorer and I want to learn to identify the styles. I even mentioned this in my earlier post.

It's not from the 70's, the materials used to build it don't coincide with the period.

And although the telephone bench seems very likely, this can as well be some other contraption like a writing bench.

But under no circumstances I would mass produce this, have no idea where the idea came from.

And yes, we still use that type of phones in Romania. We are nostalgic like that.

Cheers,
Brad

 

[okeydokey]

Sorry Brad but imo another vote for a 1960 to 1970 mass produced table made with plywood and with I suspect a brass plated handle hence the wearing out tarnished look. Look on ebay to see similar

 

[BradyS]

It wouldn't be a problem to be from that period, I don't wish it to be vintage, just to get some information for it.
I've scoured the internet and can't find anything. Shouldn't I be able to find lots of information if it were from the last 50-60 years? As I said, I'm not knowleadgeable in this part.

 

[BradyS]

After some extensive search I managed to find this:
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/t...-leaf-single-drawer-side-table/id-f_36076982/

Legs are very similar, drawer, handle; they say it's in Victorian style.

 

[Cabinetman]

Sorry but you obviously haven’t looked I put telephone seat in and this immediately came up, same with telephone bench.
Tbh I was rather shocked that people were still interested.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

In respect of this bench, I suspect it's from the second part of the 19th Century, maybe Louis XVI or Napoleon III?

Not a cat in hell's chance of being from that era. It's a common or garden mass produced telephone bench/table probably from somewhere between 1950 and 1975. Solid wood parts are beech (probably) faked up to mimic mahogany and the rest is man-made board with, again probably, a mahogany substitute veneer, e.g., sapele or one of the merantis.

It's certainly no antique with significant intrinsic value. The only reason to fix it up would be if it has sentimental value for someone, but even then, er, hmmm, well. Slainte.

 

[HOJ]

I would take one like this:



And turn it into this:

 

[BradyS]

Sorry but you obviously haven’t looked I put telephone seat in and this immediately came up, same with telephone bench.
Tbh I was rather shocked that people were still interested.
View attachment 181788

I did look but I searched for 'telephone bench' as per the suggestions here. As soon as I started to look for 'telephone table', I got results.

Let me explain the other thing. At first I took your question as sarcasm. If it wasn't meant like that, I apologize. Being a novice and wanting to do quality work in my part of the world is very difficult from many points of view so I might be quick to jump.

Okay, we still use landlines for two reasons:
1. Elderly. We have a few million elders, not sure about the numbers but it amounts to a generous percentage of the country's population (which still resides in the country). This being said, our elders are people who were raised and spent most of their adult life under a communist regime which only fell 30 years ago. In short, people who simply can't grasp or are unable to keep up with radical change like the technology advancement. They weren't taught to think like that, but the opposite. So they will hold on to using those telephones forever.
My grandma is 102. Last year we had to replace her 60's dial (disc) phone with a phone with number keys because it gave up and we couldn't fix it. She since then stopped using the phone simply because she can't understand how this works. She's otherwise very mentally active.

It's the power of habit and it will take another generation to give them up.

2. "Reputable" Companies. I don't know the reason behind this but in Romania a company gets much better good standing in the eyes of people if they use landlines. The system still is the main system used by state administration as well.

Back to my piece, as I said, I'm on a learning curve. You look at this the easy way because you are native in English and fluent in furniture/woodworking. I am fluent in English but it's my second language and I'm a novice in woodworking. When searching for something online you immediately know which words are interchangeable. I may or may not know. I spent 2 days searching until I tried replacing words and getting results.

Further, there is a big trend here which involves renewing older furniture and using it for home and commercial locations alike. So no, I don't intend of restoring or renewing it and selling as a telephone bench, although some might want it because a lot of pubs and restaurants everywhere use this theme of vintage stuff. I will sell it as a hallway or window bench. It's leather top can be used for anything from a flower pot to other decoration or practical items, even books.

 

[BradyS]

I would take one like this:

View attachment 181790

And turn it into this:

View attachment 181791

This is PRECISELY what I was talking about, thank you so much!!!

May I ask what paint did you use to finish it?