a 1950s Steelcase Desk

According to an article in The National Post a vintage Formica-topped Steelcase desk with its original key, built in the 1950s can be worth a fortune. In retro boutiques in Los Angeles, New York or Toronto, a vintage steel desk, cleaned, stripped and polished, can fetch $2,000 or more. Its hard to believe, but people are now scouring second hand furniture warehouses looking for such retro  furniture to do up and re-sell in trendy design shops.

In many cities, though, people are only now catching on. For a long time, old  furniture was mostly considered junk.
Indeed, until a decade ago, there was so little demand for it that dealers would sell their surplus to salvage companies as scrap metal. But among a circle of collectors, loft dwellers and filmmakers, vintage  furniture made by companies such as All Steel, Steelcase, Haworth and Herman Miller is highly sought. They scoop up refurbished desks, typists chairs, gym lockers, medical cabinets, factory work tables and industrial lamps.
Vanessa Paldy, owner of Retro Vie, another store in Montreal, says her clients love vintage business furniture for its “high-design look,” its afford-ability and its quality.
“This was furniture designed to impress and built to last,” she says of her tables and chairs by mid-century architects, among them Charles Eames and Canadian Walter Nugent.

Bernard Lanteigne is a 21-year veteran of the office vintage trade.

His website lostvintage.ca is a trove of relics reminiscent of Dad’s office, circa 1950. He’s got enough cafeteria chairs, army lamps and factory stools to fill four warehouses in Montreal.

In another case, a firm of solicitors in County Durham, England, replaced a “tired old” desk with modern office furniture, only to discover at a later date that the antique was a rare Chippendale. Originally sent to auction with a guide price of just £800, the piece eventually sold for an incredible £97,000!
The 5ft 6ins long desk had been used as an office desk at the unnamed solicitors since the 1920s. “We took delivery of it and recognised it as a good period partner’s desk but we didn’t know it was a Chippendale. We didn’t have the chance to have a proper look at it because it was a late entry to the sale.”
The desk was bought by a bidder in the room who was acting on behalf of an antiques dealer from the north of England. With restoration, the antique could fetch up to quarter of a million pounds at a London auction house. Its creator, Thomas Chippendale, was a master cabinet maker and interior designer in the 18th century.

A Chippendale Desk

Most people look at buying second-hand business furniture as a way of saving money, but it seems that if you know what you are doing, dealing in second hand  furniture can be a profitable business!