This beautiful Victorian item has been in my wider family for as long as anyone can remember. Its outer surface of highly polished burr veneer with brass inlays hide an interior that gives a better indication of the long years of use. The broken, worn and faded writing surface, the bent and missing catches and a cracked base, all needed attention. I was humbled to be entrusted with its refurbishment.

Having stripped off the writing surface and removed the hinges and lock, I could now see the evidence of previous repairs, the hinges were not original and neither was the fabric writing surface. I also found a few hidden makers’ marks and some numbered marks on the back of the pen rest and corresponding marks on the box below, which suggest that the slope was one of a number made at the same time, the marks ensuring that each pen rest stayed with the box it was made to fit.

Tiny fragments of the previous cloth suggested that the slope was once covered in a bright blue material, so I chose a rich blue baize as the new covering. I also managed to locate a replacement tiny brass “shot bolt” to hold the lower writing surface in place when the slope is closed. Remarkably the replacement catch was only a few millimetres larger than the recess cut for the previous one, so after a little fettling I was able to fit it. Two substantial cracks in the base were repaired with slender replacement material, and I also polished the brass hinges and lock parts and replaced all the screws.