Antique writing slope locksmiths

I am acquiring a lovely large old writing slope that appears to be of very high quality, being made of flame mahogany I believe. There is a 3-latch lock inscribed with what appears to be a script letter "P" (picture attached). Any thoughts out there of who might be the manufacturer of the lock? The slope dates to roughly 1860's. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

photo of the object itself , please.
closed & opened

@Shangas
@Bev aka thelmasstuff

 

& as is our want to do............

where r u
where does the item come from
how did u arrive at the dating..

 

Try wont, Komo...

 

I like want , better !

cuz...y'know.... it's what we want !

 

Ah, yes...very good, sir!

 

all good......... keep me honest !

 

Unless they were SUPER luxurious and fancy and elaborate and cost an absolute fortune, most writing cases had very basic locks (I should know, I've picked enough of them!!). As a result, they used really generic locks.

The only company I know of which made high-end locks which were meant specifically for writing cases is Joseph Bramah & Co (yes, that Bramah), which operated out of the UK in the 1700s and 1800s. Although most of the times, they just made the lock mechanism and sold it to the case-maker, and they installed it in their boxes and stamped their name on the lock-plate. Or at least, that's been my observation.

 

Could be Isaac Pedley, who was an agent in Birmingham, supplying locks, chains, etc., although he wasn’t a company owner. But that’s all I’ve got.

 

A couple additional pics, if it helps (sorry I don't have more yet, it is actually on its way to me in the post, coming from the UK). The date estimate is from the seller. I am a complete novice on writing slopes, but to me this is a stunner, so might be one of the high-end boxes someone mentioned. The leather tooling is extraordinary, and original. The box itself is nearly 20 pounds in weight.

 

it'd stunning.....
when u get it........ we want to see lots of big clear photos !!!!!

 

Nice, big, campaign box, with brass inlays. Very nice piece from what I can see, although with antique boxes like this, it's extremely common to have all kinds of missing and broken bits and pieces, and people still try to sell them for absurd amounts of money.

 

Thanks all for the continuing dialog and help. From a UK-based experienced writing slope restorer, all that they could offer on the lock is that it followed the Tompson Patent design, which allows a flat lock plate (unlike the Bramah where the pins protrude from the lock plate surface). They also confirmed the wood as solid flame mahogany, which I understand is rather rare. I add a few more pics from the seller, which show the slope as a whole is quite clean and complete, down to the set of brass pins for the paper holding section. Also a close-up of the ornate leather tooling/embossing.

 

Very, very pretty. They cleaned it up nicely. Flame mahogany is practically holographic when you gaze at it. Put this in pride of place so you can look at it often!

 

I don't know if you saw this one with the added name of Turner. While I don't know if that's an owner or retailer name, the emblem is the same and I guess it could be a "T".





https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/atq/d/dublin-rosewood-lap-desk-1870-elaborate/7785977047.html

 

Very very impressive. Most writing boxes do NOT look that good. Somebody clearly went to a lot of effort to restore it properly. It's a fine piece of craftsmanship.

 

Beautiful!

 

Wow @say_it_slowly, that's quite a catch! This experienced box enthusiast I mentioned said the mark could have been added by a journeyman locksmith, apparently he worked on both boxes

 

Purely out of curiosity (and knowing these are dangerous waters!) - what sort of writing slope characteristics might delineate a $1000 slope, from a $2000 slope, or from a $3000 slope? Understanding that pedigree and provenance could surely be big factors. Thanks for any opinions!

 

The prices of writing slopes / cases / boxes depends on many things.

First of course, is condition. If it's in fantastic condition, it'll be worth almost whatever somebody wants to charge.

Next is size, materials, how complex the box is, etc. How many compartments it has, what arrangement they're in, and so on.

Then there's stuff like accessories.

How many inkwells? Does it come with its own equipment?

Some boxes - the REALLY elaborate ones - have all kinds of stuff inside them. Cashboxes, inkwells, matchboxes, pens, pencils, paper-knives, rulers, bone-folders...the list goes on and on and on.

Others will just have an inkwell or two, and...that's it - it's your job to fill up the rest!

A box that's worth $1,000, $2,000+, is one which has its original keys, original inkwells and accessories, which is in *fantastic* cosmetic and operational condition, with no major, functionality flaws.

That said, I have seen people selling writing boxes with literally half the box missing, and nothing inside it - for $500. I've seen people trying to sell half-empty ones for $1,500. And I've also picked up some boxes for as little as $50. So prices jump all over the place, up and down the wall.

The name of the maker doesn't necessarily mean anything, unless it's a BIG name that everybody's likely to recognise, like Mappin & Webb, or Toulmin & Gale, so on, so on.

Writing cases were the Victorian equivalent to your laptop computer - everybody who had any kind of office job was likely to have one, so there were lots of them around.

Then in the 1910s, 20s, 30s, 40s, fountain pens showed up, and suddenly typewriters were available, and as a result, they basically became obsolete overnight. People kept the bits which were important - inkwells, pens, pencils, paper-knives, letter-openers and such...and then just threw out the box. It's why you find so many of them these days with NOTHING in them - because anything that was useful was taken out 100 years ago when grandpa decided he didn't need it anymore.