Hi everybody, I have a writing-style Monterey desk that I'm trying to find out more about. Below are pics of the center drawer. The inscription looks like it was burnt into the wood. It is dovetailed, but pretty rough. I also included the bottom back of the drawer to show the plywood bottom. There is also other writing on the bottom (stocking or auctions probably)

Questions:

1) Do I have reason to believe the inscription is not authentic?

2) When did they start using plywood bottoms for drawers?

3) My first thought was 1950's-60's, but don't know if this type of furniture was still produced back then and the piece looks pretty rough to only be that old.

Thanks for your thoughts.

David

Its probably authentic. The mark is from the Mason Manufacturing Co. - I have them in my database as:

Mason Manufacturing Co. (produced pieces for Barker Brothers retail shop)
• Los Angeles, CA, 1929-1943
• Spanish Mission/Revival style tables, inset tile tables, desks, chairs with painted decoration, iron strap hardware, distressed finishes, often called ‘California Monterey’ or just ‘Monterey’ style

footnote: other companies that worked in the ‘Monterey’ style include: Coronado, Del Rey, Imperial, Shaw, Catalina, Malibu, and Taylor Tile

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The rough dovetails and finish are authentic sounding and plywood was invented earlier. I don't know exactly when but maybe 1900-05ish - worth Google check maybe. Lots of common Mission pieces have plywood drawer bottoms and backs to case pieces etc.

Thanks Stonecat. How early was Monterey Furniture made in Los Angeles. Apparently there was a revival. When was this revival most popular? I also have an old handpainted chair, can I post a pic of that? How do I get these photos to not blow up to large, blurry size?

Please post more pics. Can you take some shots from farther back so we can get an idea of the overall look of the desk and maybe the chair?

quote:

Originally posted by DL:
Thanks Stonecat. How early was Monterey Furniture made in Los Angeles. Apparently there was a revival. When was this revival most popular? I also have an old handpainted chair, can I post a pic of that? How do I get these photos to not blow up to large, blurry size?

Per my message, Mason was in business around 1929-1943.

The 'Revival' was a term loosely applied to various companies that started producing furniture in the 30's (like the Monterey style stuff) that included some of the features of earlier Arts & Crafts / Mission furniture, but was also somewhat a reproduction of the really early Spanish Mission stuff, from California, Mexico, etc. So the term Mission was first used in the early 1900s to describe the new furniture being made in the east that somewhat resembled the really old Spanish Mission stuff, but then in the 30s there was an actual phase of reproducing the Spanish Mission style, which resulted in the terms Spanish Revival or Spanish Mission Revival. The revival in the 30s also loosely included styles that you could call 'Rustic Cowboy', or just 'Rustic', and 'Medieval', and 'Gothic', which all used exposed joints, distressed finishes, thick lumber, and so on, similar to about 20-30yrs earlier in the Arts & Crafts movement. I wouldn't really call this a serious movement with an identifying philosophy. I think it was just the furniture market trying to find new customer interest in relatively hard economic times. I've created a separate section in my database to cover some of these companies because the furniture is fairly collectable, if not technically quite antique yet.

As far as your pictures go I don't know what the problem is. I checked the way they are coded and they look fine. Preview them before you upload them and then preview them again when you have them on photobucket to try to isolate any issues with the resolution getting changed.

I don't know what's going on with the pics either. They look fine on photobucket too. There's nothing to indicate they would look like that.

Anyway, thanks so much for the info and I'll try this weekend to get some better pics.

Ok, here are some more pics (including the mirror and chair) - hope this works better