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1860 Victorian Desk...maybe
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<p>[QUOTE="Shangas, post: 123064, member: 360"]The leather top may be a replacement (such things do exist), but the presence of the leather top immediately says that this was used for writing - there's absolutely no other reason a table of this period would have one. </p><p><br /></p><p>Steel dip-pens came out in the 1820s/30s, when two brothers living in Birmingham, England, discovered that you could mass-produce them by punching out millions of them from cheap, sheet-steel. </p><p><br /></p><p>Just feed the sheet through the press. WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM! In the space of five minutes you could have five hundred pens. </p><p><br /></p><p>This made writing much more accessible, so a greater variety of writing-desks/tables were being produced. But like I said - mass-produced dip pens are extremely sharp-pointed - so writing on a wooden surface (while it was possible) wouldn't have been very comfortable (to get an idea of what it's like - get a sewing needle and try and 'write' with it on a wooden tabletop. You'll soon find out how frustrating it is). </p><p><br /></p><p>So leather writing-surfaces became popular (they existed prior to the invention of the steel pen, however). </p><p><br /></p><p>They provided the cushioning OVER the wood that stopped the sharp point of the pen from scratching into the desktop - and if the leather was damaged (accidental cuts/tears, or spillages etc), then it could be replaced, without damaging the desk underneath. </p><p><br /></p><p>A table like this, I agree, probably isn't worth faking (why the hell would you bother??). </p><p><br /></p><p>I would imagine this as a side-table in an office or a library somewhere, or in a person's study. It might be used to store household account books or something, so that when you needed to check/update them, you could take the book or papers out of the drawers, put it on top, write on it, and then put back in. </p><p><br /></p><p>It's the lack of storage space (compare this to what most people considered to be a 'desk' in the 19th century) that makes me call this a writing table rather than a desk. I can't imagine someone sitting at this for 6 or 8 hours a day and being able to do any serious work on it. For one, the surface isn't very big - and the storage space is negligible. </p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, I'll shut up now.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Shangas, post: 123064, member: 360"]The leather top may be a replacement (such things do exist), but the presence of the leather top immediately says that this was used for writing - there's absolutely no other reason a table of this period would have one. Steel dip-pens came out in the 1820s/30s, when two brothers living in Birmingham, England, discovered that you could mass-produce them by punching out millions of them from cheap, sheet-steel. Just feed the sheet through the press. WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM! In the space of five minutes you could have five hundred pens. This made writing much more accessible, so a greater variety of writing-desks/tables were being produced. But like I said - mass-produced dip pens are extremely sharp-pointed - so writing on a wooden surface (while it was possible) wouldn't have been very comfortable (to get an idea of what it's like - get a sewing needle and try and 'write' with it on a wooden tabletop. You'll soon find out how frustrating it is). So leather writing-surfaces became popular (they existed prior to the invention of the steel pen, however). They provided the cushioning OVER the wood that stopped the sharp point of the pen from scratching into the desktop - and if the leather was damaged (accidental cuts/tears, or spillages etc), then it could be replaced, without damaging the desk underneath. A table like this, I agree, probably isn't worth faking (why the hell would you bother??). I would imagine this as a side-table in an office or a library somewhere, or in a person's study. It might be used to store household account books or something, so that when you needed to check/update them, you could take the book or papers out of the drawers, put it on top, write on it, and then put back in. It's the lack of storage space (compare this to what most people considered to be a 'desk' in the 19th century) that makes me call this a writing table rather than a desk. I can't imagine someone sitting at this for 6 or 8 hours a day and being able to do any serious work on it. For one, the surface isn't very big - and the storage space is negligible. Anyway, I'll shut up now.[/QUOTE]
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