Friday Favorites: Carla's Antique Bulter's Desk

And we’re back with every body's favorite column, Friday Favorites, after a brief hiatus last week while we were “on location” in New Orleans. Not only were we lucky enough to attend a great conference while we were there but we had the good fortune of peaking into a fabulous Southern home too! Read on as we take a look into Carla’s house to see what her favorite piece of furniture is from her superb collection of antiques.

What is your favorite piece and why is this your favorite thing in the house?
Well I have so many favorite items it is really difficult to choose one. Some of my favorite collections are my antique furniture. I don’t have an awful lot of antique furniture but the pieces I have are original period pieces. My favorite piece is a mahogany butler’s desk that I acquired in the early 60’s. I like it because it was the first piece of furniture I bought as a married couple.

 

Why did you choose it?
My mother use to be my scout. She would go out of town and she loved to antique herself. She would go into these stores and find something I would like and she would either call me or come back to tell me about something. Then we would go on the hunt to see if it was something I would really like.

Can you tell us more about it- who made it, where is it from, how much did it cost?
Mother had taken pictures and sent me a note with it (see photo above). From the note: “It’s a mahogany Regency butler’s desk circa 1800. The darkest photo is the color mahogany; inlay is satinwood with brass hardware and it has ivory knobs on the interior.” I bought it in Dallas at Manheim Gallery. When the top shelf folds down it becomes a table and exposes a bunch of little drawers. The little drawers were used by the butler for whatever he needed to store. The butler’s desk cost about $800 at the time.

Was it an easy choice or did you take convincing?
It took me a few weeks once I got the pictures but it ended up being an easy choice once I saw it. I had to drive to Dallas to go see it. When I was there I went around to some other antique shops but didn’t find anything else I liked. It didn’t take much convincing to stick with this desk though.

Was it something you had been wanting for a while? What barriers were there to acquiring this item?
I had been trying to find a butler’s desk for a bit and I thought it would be a nice chest and a useful item (although I’ve never used it as a desk). At the time, I would see a piece and then I would read a little bit about it and then go looking.  It wasn’t difficult at all to get it back home as I had a station wagon and we put it in the back and off we went.

Has this piece moved from another location in your house? How did you end up placing here?
When I lived in Louisiana I had it in my living room. When I moved out here, at first I thought I was going to put it in my study but my decorator Buddy said, “Oh no Carla, it has been in the hall. Every house has to have a chest in the hall. Now if you have another chest you want to put in the hall, well OK, but if not, that butler’s chest has to go in the hall.”

  

Tell us about the items on top of the desk.
The pieces on it are a pair of 17th century brass candlesticks and a large Imari bowl from Tokyo. Above the bowl are a collection of four Audubon prints in the octavo edition, which means 1/8th of the original elephant edition size that he published. Those birds are special because Audubon did his original watercolor of those birds in this area. There are a total of about 12 birds that he did. I have some more in my study too.  

You mention you have other collections, can you tell us about those.
I got interested in collecting books on Natchez and the South by Natchez, Mississippi, and Louisiana authors. I chose certain authors that I kinda wanted to concentrate on and I found out that first editions by some were prohibitive in cost. For about 5-6 years I pursued it with a passion. I would look up books stores everywhere I went.

I like to mix in my books with my oriental collection and family pictures. At one time I wanted book cases all the way across the wall. My husband talked me out of it and I’m glad he did because he said we’d still be buying books. In my den, I have a big wall of book cases filled with photos and books; that makes me happy to be surrounded by them.

How would you describe your decor style?
Primarily I am traditional, very traditional; always have been and I guess I always will be. I like traditional decorating, furniture and beautiful oriental rugs. I’m just from the old school in the South, I guess.

What are you biggest design challenges?
Actually after we moved out here and the rooms flow one into the other, I had to work on coordinating color combinations that go well with each other. I knew I needed to vary my decorating from room to room but it still needed to all blend in together.

Where do you get inspiration for decorating your home?  What inspires you?
It’s just a personal preference. I like old things and antiques so I gear my selections toward that. When I was in business and we would go to market, I would get ideas there. I’m an avid reader and I like to look up things. If there is something I like, I will research it. The Magazine Antiques is my favorite magazine. Southern Accents was wonderful too but is now out of print. I have many books on antiques so I use those and look at them a lot.

Complete this sentence: “Here in this house...”
I look around each day and see the different items and pieces of furniture and I think about where they came from and the stories behind them.

Thank you so much for sharing your wonderfully poetic stories behind these beautiful antiques you have collected through the years. It is such an inspiration to see how a lifetime of collecting can create such a lovely home.

Comments

[Carlane Little]

Great interview! And very interesting. I love the color of the wall and how it changes in each photo with the different light. The back story is fascinating of how it all came together. Really beautiful!

[Elise]

@Carlane-- thank you so much for you kind words. The stories always are so wonderful; that's what makes our Friday Favorite so special! Plus Gran is so full of lovely stories and history it's always a delight to sit and listen.