Writing Slope Or Lap Desk

[Pepin]

This looks like the woodworking version of a fused men's dinner jacket. OMG! Glue drips everywhere! :blink: I've seen some English lap desk going for as low as $125...then there are many made from leather that cost even less. $60=two solid vintage pens!

 

 

 

 

 

I love the writing slope and have wanted one for quite sometime. But it seems like I always gravitate toward the ones that are $500 and up...

[Britt]

okay it wasn't that bad

 

Besides... I wanted one on which I could do some modification, without feeling awful for having ripped apart an antique or a $100+ intact slope...

[Shangas]

In my experience (and before I bought a complete and intact one, I was searching and researching for nearly 10 years), there are hundreds of gutted old writing-boxes that you can find in places like flea-markets and antiques shops and so-forth. I daresay that if you got your hands on one, you could refurbish it, but also customise it as you saw fit.

[beak]

................ there are hundreds of gutted old writing-boxes that you can find in places like flea-markets and antiques shops and so-forth. .............

This is so true - almost every third writing box I see that has not yet found its way to a dealer seems to have had it innards pulled out - anyone know why?

[kathleen]

My writing slope is an antique. It needs a bit of restoration. I am pleased that it has not been gutted. It was sold complete, fitted with an inkwell and a gold Edward Todd pen (minus nib).

 

 

 

 

 

[txinsk]

................ there are hundreds of gutted old writing-boxes that you can find in places like flea-markets and antiques shops and so-forth. .............

This is so true - almost every third writing box I see that has not yet found its way to a dealer seems to have had it innards pulled out - anyone know why?

 

Probably trying to find the hidden old coin that everyone of them has in them. Some of these boxes did have hidden compartments, I think onesite had pictures of a hidden drawer that had coin sized slots so the money never flopped around. I don't know the reason for the gutting, but my guess is that more than a few have been ripped apart for this reason.

 

Rick

[Shangas]

Writing-boxes/lap-desks became obsolete after about 1900. Nobody had a serious need for them once the fountain pen had been invented. So MY guess is that they were just treated as trash. They were broken up and gotten rid of. Certainly this had to have happened after fountain pens came into prominence, because in their day, a writing box was like a laptop computer. And you don't trash a laptop if you need it every day.

 

But if you suddenly upgraded to an iPad, you might use the laptop as a doorstop.

 

So I guess it's a case of old-and-boring-worth-ignoring.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, this makes surviving writing-boxes/desks more and more valuable and increasingly harder to find.

[jonyyno]

Have you ever visited this site: https://www.wood-presents.com/lap-desks/ then, you can find a lot of desk options there

[inkstainedruth]

30 minutes ago, jonyyno said:

Have you ever visited this site: https://www.wood-presents.com/lap-desks/ then, you can find a lot of desk options there

I just looked at your link, and there didn't seem to be many options at all.  Three lap desks, no slopes. 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth