Office furniture is the furniture designed for business and professional work, including desks, filing and storage cabinets, chairs, bookcases and fittings used in counting houses, banks, solicitors' chambers, schools and government offices. In antiques it usually refers to pieces made from the late eighteenth century to the mid twentieth century.
The growth of commerce and administration in the Victorian period created strong demand for practical office pieces, and makers produced pedestal desks, clerks' desks, roll-top desks, plan chests, banks of drawers, swivel chairs and stationery cabinets in mahogany, oak and walnut. In the early twentieth century, steel furniture and specialist filing systems appeared, followed by modernist designs in tubular steel and plywood. Antique office furniture is valued for its solid construction and functional design, which make it well suited to modern home offices. Collectors look for original handles, locks and leather writing surfaces, as well as makers' labels or stamps from known suppliers. Oak and mahogany banks of drawers, once used for documents or specimens, are now especially popular as storage in studies, kitchens and dressing rooms.
