NEW YORK, NY.- Due to increased demand, Eli Wilner & Company are in the process of expanding their renowned business of antique frames, frame restoration, and frame replication, to create replicas of important furniture. Their first major undertaking in this capacity was the creation of a copy of the Resolute Desk, the famous desk used by John F. Kennedy and many other US presidents in The Oval Office. Wilner’s hand-carved, historically accurate replica now resides in the George W. Bush Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. As of September 2020, there are two more privately commissioned copies of the desk being built at Wilner’s studio in New York City.

The original Resolute Desk was made from the timbers of an abandoned British ship recovered by an American vessel. The ship was returned to the Queen of England as a goodwill gesture. Later, when the ship was retired, Queen Victoria commissioned the creation of the desk from William Evenden at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, England. In 1880 it was formally presented to President Rutherford Hayes.




Mr. Eli Wilner first became enamored of the desk during numerous visits to the White House to conduct a survey of the collection’s picture frames and completing 28 framing projects. Wilner cited, “It is both a marvelous example of the craft of woodworking, and an incredible example of how an object can truly embody history”. This fine 19th century English craftsmanship posed a difficult obstacle to the reproduction process. Wilner said, “my team of woodworkers and carvers found that the desk was going to demand every ounce of their expertise and experience from years of restoring and replicating antique frames. These kinds of hand skills are virtually non-existent today. Without our experience, I do not think that such a great replica would have ever been possible”.

Creating a replica of this iconic piece of furniture is one of many notable undertakings relating to United States history that Eli Wilner & Company has accomplished, including recreating the lost frame on Emanuel Leutze’s monumental “Washington Crossing the Delaware” for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They are looking forward to taking on a widening array of challenging projects with the expansion of their highly respected services and capabilities to include historical furniture replication.

Eli Wilner & Company has completed over 10,000 framing projects for private collectors, museums, and institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and The White House. In 2019, Wilner was honored by the Historic Charleston Foundation with the Samuel Gaillard Stoney Conservation Craftsmanship Award, for their work in historic picture frame conservation.

For more information on Eli Wilner & Company’s first copy of the Resolute Desk: Click here.