Featured Writing Slope

Not that plank. There's another, shorter one that's missing.

The sloped piece of wood is where you'd store stuff like postage-stamps.

 

In that case, what's the purpose of that long plank that's hidden? (I'll add a pic of it tomorrow)

 

I did wonder if it was for stamps. Thank you for the confirmation

 

Here we are!

Look familiar??

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/d...g-box-writing-slope-circa-1860/id-f_21555082/

 

That's his little brother!
Mine is 14x38x25cm

The smaller plank is indeed missing.
Is this bit on the side

a rest for the small plank?

And here's a pic of the wider plank

 

Is it the same size as the compartment part?
Maybe to cover the compartments so you get a nice flat surface for a large piece of paper?

 

It doesn't seem to be flat enough for that.
Could it have been used as a paper weight, to keep the top of the paper/scroll down while writing? But with just 40 grams, I don't think it would be very useful to hold a scroll down...
Or maybe a ruler to write in straight lines?

 

I could have done with one of those in primary school.
Probably still could now.

 

Same here

 

It'd be a paperweight or straight-rule or something like that, to stop things being blown off the desk or sliding around.

 

We had fountain pens, but they had capsules so we didn't have to use ink pots. It seems so archaic now, letting elementary school kids use dripping ink!!

 

My dad used fountain pens when he was in school in the 50s and 60s. He said they used to throw them like darts when they were bored!

 

I think you were right with birds eye maple, I did think is was burl elm.
https://www.woodveneer4u.co.uk/ElmWoodVeneerEuropean.html

 

I've always called these a "traveling desk", but now I'd like to know if they were meant to be used while traveling, or were they intended to be used in the home/office setting? It certainly is easier than writing on a flat surface.

 

They're called various things. Writing cases, writing boxes, box-desks, travel-desks, lap-desks, writing compendiums...but yes, they were designed to be used while traveling. You'd pack it into your suitcase or your steamer-trunk along with your clothes, your toiletry-case and all the other things you needed, and took it away with you on a trip.

Remember, these were made before the days of fountain pens and ballpoints, before typewriters were compact. So if you wanted to write - with ink - you needed to bring a dip-pen, and an inkwell...and you needed spare steel points...you needed writing-paper, envelopes, stamps, seals, sealing-wax, etc. You also needed somewhere to store correspondence and paperwork.

You couldn't put all this into a briefcase - what if the bottles smash and ink goes everywhere?

So they had writing cases like these, specially measured and fitted so that the inkwells, which screwed shut for security, wouldn't rattle around and break, and where everything had its own place for easy organising.

A lot of them had elastic banding underneath the writing slope, so that you could slide documents in there for added storage. A lot of these cases had secret compartments. Some are pretty obvious, others were really, really well-hidden.

They were mostly made between the late 1600s through to the very early 1900s. By the end of the Edwardian era, they had basically become obsolete. I don't think I've seen anything like these being made past ca. 1910/1920.