I got this six foot long standing desk in July 2005. Taking a break from a Microsoft conference in Minneapolis, I cruised through the old antique shops by the river, and there it was. I’d seen an incredible standing desk in Truckee the previous winter, but it was way too expensive. So I had standing desk on the brain.
The consigner of this one was an artist, who had bought it in the 1970s from a bank in Graceville, Minnesota, and used it for her artwork. Before that, presumably, the bank tellers used it to serve customers and write in their large ledger books. Note the little relay alarm switch under the side drawer (see photos), to trip an alarm if there was trouble.
This desk might be hand-made, because it’s signed underneath, ‘F&A Dawson.’ However, it’s also suspiciously similar (thought not identical) to the one in the 1897 Sears catalog below, so perhaps the signer simply refinished or refurbished it at some point. Standing desks were popular in this era, both mass produced and hand made.
The knobs are not original… I bought them on Etsy.
One of these two makers likely produced this desk. Either F&A Dawson:
Or Sears Roebuck.
I guess there’s a third possibility, too – that F&A Dawson were the craftsmen/workers who built the piece for Sears, according to Sears’ design!