If you're someone with a strong sense of order and like having everything where it should be, no doubt this desk will appeal to you as it does me.
It's at Monzie* Castle, whose interior and furnishings were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer after a fire gutted the building in 1908.
I don't know the origin of this piece but it looks to be of the period (the two calendar inserts you see above are for August and September 1914). The round hole between them would have housed a clock, there are letter scales, drawers and compartments for stamps, ink, rubber bands, cheque book, 'letters answered' and 'letters unanswered', pens, fasteners, wax and luggage labels,
and the blotter incorporates what looks to be a ceramic 'slate' (anyone know the correct term?) for memoranda and one for engagements.
And when you've finished your correspondence for the day, you post it in the box in the hall!
*The 'z' is silent, and the name is Gaelic for 'field of corn', I understand.
A perfect mini-office - in such beautiful condition with a lovely patina. A remnant of days gone by that I would give my eye-teeth to own. And that post box - so Downton Abbey!
Posted by: elaine | 08 October 2013 at 07:41 AM
I'd love somrthing like that (and the space to put it in). Another quirky little post; they're great.
Posted by: Barbara | 08 October 2013 at 08:06 AM
I wonder who got up from this desk in August 1914 and never returned to change the date. Lest we forget.
Posted by: Mr Cornflower | 08 October 2013 at 05:29 PM
My thoughts exactly. I wonder if the poor owner ever really used this piece.
Posted by: Dixie Lee | 15 October 2013 at 08:49 PM