Antique Blackwood Bank Manager's Partner Desk, 1910

A fine solid blackwood bank manager's partner's desk, circa 1910, made for the manager of the old E.S.& a Bank in Bendigo, the desk top with canted edges above twin pedestals both with slides and four, drawers of graduating depth and long wooden handles, a pair of cupboards to, the rear, with fluted stiles to the corners and raised on swollen reeded, square section feet, purchased antique centre of Hawthorn for $2500 in 1994, height 30.71 in., width 59.84 in., depth 41.34 in.

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Blackwood - One of the best known and most widely used Australian timbers, blackwood (acacia melanoxylon), is a member of the Acacia (wattle) family and grows in eastern Australia from about Adelaide in South Australia, as far north as Cairns in Queensland.

The largest, straightest and tallest trees come from the wet forest and swamps of north-west Tasmania where it is grown commercially.

Blackwood timber colours range across a wide spectrum, from a very pale honey colour through to a dark chocolate with streaks of red tinge.

The hardwood timber has been commonly used in the production of furniture, flooring, and musical instruments in Australia from the late 19th century. However, the straight grain timber is not the most prized or valuable, that honour falls to blackwood with a wavy, fiddleback pattern, which is used both in the solid and as a veneer. Fiddleback was only used on the finest examples of furniture.
Reeding - A series of parallel, raised convex mouldings or bands, in section resembling a series of the letter 'm'. The opposite form of fluting, with which it is sometimes combined. Reeding is commonly found on chair legs, either turned or straight, on the arms and backs of chairs and couches and around table edges in the Neoclassical or Classical Revival manner. Reeding was also used as a form of decoration during the Edwardian period, but it is usually much shallower and evidently machine made.
Circa - A Latin term meaning 'about', often used in the antique trade to give an approximate date for the piece, usually considered to be five years on either side of the circa year. Thus, circa 1900 means the piece was made about 1900, probably between 1895 and 1905. The expression is sometimes abbreviated to c.1900.
Stile - A cabinetmaker's term that refers to the vertical end members of the framework in a panelled item of furniture. The vertical mid-members are known as muntins.
Fluting - A form of decoration found on many pieces of furniture, as well as ceramics, silver and clocks, in which round-bottomed grooves, of varying width and depth, are let into columns, pilasters, legs. As a general rule, flutes are cut in the vertical, though they may follow a turned leg in a spiral pattern. In cross-section, they may be described as a series of 'U' shapes, rising and narrowing at each end of the groove. Fluting is the opposite of reeding, with which fluting is often associated.
Pedestal - The columns that support many dining tables and most small occasional tables. They are usually turned, though octagonal-shaped pedestals were fashionable during the 1830s and 1840s.

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