Antique? Childrens school desk; NJ Shool-Church Furniture Co.

[young3]

Greetings,
I have an old, presumably antique, iron and wood, children's school desk. The engraving on the side says "N.J. School-Church Furn Co. Trenton NJ."
It has a hole for an ink well, space to hold books under the desk top, and a folding seat on the front part.
I can't find any information on the NJ School Church Furniture Company, and have had little luck finding info on other desks from the same manufacturer.
I'm trying to find out how old this desk may be (would there be a date stamp on the desk somewhere?), and what this desk may be worth.
It is in great condition. It looks all original, the wood is in excellent condition.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!

[talesofthesevenseas]

I love these old school desks!! They are one of those things, like pianos, that don't seem to have a desirable function in modern homes though, and the prices on them are not what you would expect. I follow them quite a bit on our local craigslist, but like most people, I just don't have a good place to put one.

Usually I see people start out listing a desk for $100 or even $200 and it doesn't sell. They are too large to ship reasonably on Ebay, so they miss out on that market. Then the price drops and typically stops around $50 to $75 in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, just last week I saw a beautiful pair, still attached to their original floorboards from the old schoolhouse selling for $15.

Sadly, I think these wonderful pieces of history are terribly undervalued. I love them and love to think of all the little kids sitting in them, wishing the lesson would end! 

I will let the experts respond on the age. I think yours may have been refinished, these are usually pretty battered after years of use by kids. But I could be wrong on that. Can you show a clearer photo of the desktop surface? That should be a good indicator. These are one of those items that refinishing doesn't seem to affect the value much either way.

[KC]

In my neck of the woods (south) if in good shape they used to sell for $50 to $125.  But with the economy changing I would bet the value would go along the range of $40 to $100.