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Writing desks


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I recently purchased an old (Victorian) writing desk as used in schools here in England.

 

It is nothing special..it's not an antique or anything, but its sturdy, has character and has a nice feel about it. It has a fold down, angled writing surface (about 25-30 degrees) with a drawer beneath and a couple of small drawers inside.

 

What place do you all use for your writing? Do you have a special table or desk which inspires your creativity and enhances your enjoyment of your pens?

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I have a big rolltop desk with many drawers and cubbies filled with fun pen stuff. What are you going to put in your writing desk? Do you have favorite paper, etc?

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I've been keeping my eyes open for a nice writing desk, something like a secretary or a rolltop, or even piano-style with the fold-down locking lid. Whatever I find should have at least one locking drawer (I have a four-year-old; I hesitate to imagine the mess he could make with a fountain pen) and lots of cubby holes. It's been a long time since I've had anything that isn't some sort of computer desk, and I'm tired of trying to write in the cramped space in front of a computer monitor.

 

--Bob Farace

~~scribbler~~

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I found my rolltop desk at a yard sale about 14 years ago. It's a great big thing. I have enjoyed it so much over the years. It's a brand of furniture called "Winner's Only." I was lucky to find it used as I could not have afforded it new.

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That's a great desk! Lots of drawers and cubby holes. Does that piece on the left side that the top tracks through swing away?

 

--Bob Farace

~~scribbler~~

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QUOTE (Farace @ Apr 10 2007, 11:01 AM)
Does that piece on the left side that the top tracks through swing away?

There are side pieces on both the left and right that can be positioned out or in. They would need to be in to close the roll top. Since we have no 4 year olds in this house I almost never roll the top down or lock the desk.

 

There is a secret drawer too... but don't tell anybody!!!!!! ph34r.gif

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I love your rolltop...very grand! I fancy it'd be a little too large to fit into my little study.

 

Here is an image of the inside of my desk... I must say, I do really enjoy the sloping writing surface. I'm not sure why, but it seems to help me to use my whole arm to write with.

post-36-1176233127_thumb.jpg

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That's very cool! wink.gif I like that I can see your rocking blotter and Waterman Ink. Is the other bottle of ink Diamine? A while back I think there was a post about people who also liked writing on a sloped surface.

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My word...you have beady eyes rolleyes.gif Well spotted!

 

Yes, the Waterman is (the usual Florida Blue) and yes, you're right, the other is Diamine Prussian Blue. I tend to use the Diamine most.

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THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

 

That is a beautiful writing desk. It is just so well organized.

 

Okay, sometimes I need to be hit in the eyeballs by a good writing desk.

 

And yours is grand. biggrin.gif

 

I've been moaning and kvetching about having sore shoulders, crampy wrists, out of sorts back muscles. Then your post hit me like a big wet kiss to the old brainpan. headsmack.gif

 

I've left my writing desk at my Mum's house. It fell prey to the "three moves in one year". It fell by the wayside. During the multiple moves, my wrist got shattered into bits too numerous to count, writing was sort of shelved. The hand didn't come back. And it didn't recover some more. And now I can write longhand again, and what I need is my old collapseable drafting table: no drawers, no frills, no nothing. tongue.gif

 

Weekend project? Get the darn thing across town and into my flat. With the drafting chair. And, I'LL BE SET FOR WRITING!!!! animal26.gif

 

I am such an idiot. The dining room table and my regular office/student desk is not the right height. wallbash.gif It never was. But, the drafting table. Geez, how could I have been so dumb. lticaptd.gif lticaptd.gif lticaptd.gif lticaptd.gif lticaptd.gif

 

In the meantime, that is one fine desk. Can you find some pigtails and an inkwell to complete the experience? blink.gif Probably a perfect fit for the bottle of Diamine... ohmy.gif

Elizabeth

 

Spring and love arrived on a bird's sweet song. "How does that little box sound like birds and laughter?" I asked the gypsy violinist. He leaned back, pointing to his violin. "Look inside, you'll see the birdies sing to me" soft laughter in his voice. "I hear them, I can almost see them!", I shouted as his bow danced on the strings. "Ah yes" he said, "your heart is a violin." Shony Alex Braun

 

As it began for Shony, it began for me. My heart -- My violin

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I write at an old ('40s) bandy-legged secretary I call "Aunt Polly". Howcome the name? Damfino; it just said to me, "Hi, I'm Aunt Polly!" At night, I sit and write at Aunt Polly by candle light. I dip the candles. My bees made the wax. I light the candles with flint and steel. Small rituals make the writing better.

 

Paddler

 

Can a calculator understand a cash register?

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QUOTE (Paddler @ Apr 10 2007, 07:09 PM)
I write at an old ('40s) bandy-legged secretary I call "Aunt Polly". Howcome the name? Damfino; it just said to me, "Hi, I'm Aunt Polly!" At night, I sit and write at Aunt Polly by candle light. I dip the candles. My bees made the wax. I light the candles with flint and steel. Small rituals make the writing better.

Paddler

Wow!! Wonderful! As a mead maker I am especially happy to hear about your bees. biggrin.gif

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QUOTE (jbb @ Apr 10 2007, 10:14 PM)
QUOTE (Paddler @ Apr 10 2007, 07:09 PM)
I write at an old ('40s) bandy-legged secretary I call "Aunt Polly". Howcome the name? Damfino; it just said to me, "Hi, I'm Aunt Polly!" At night, I sit and write at Aunt Polly by candle light. I dip the candles. My bees made the wax. I light the candles with flint and steel. Small rituals make the writing better.

Paddler

Wow!! Wonderful! As a mead maker I am especially happy to hear about your bees. biggrin.gif

im amazed at the both of you! i wish i could keep bees and make mead. im dying for some honeycomb. drool.gif

 

jbb, i love your desk as well! itd be perfect for me, with all those little drawers to store my many many pens [not all FPs] for writing and sketching/drawing, as well as other art supplies.

 

i have A desk, but its so utterly covered in (bleep) i actually cannot use it. i also dont have a chair suitable heightwise to use it anyway. ive got another one waiting to replace it, but i am dreadfully lazy. ive also got an old drafting table, but it isnt practical for my room size since i would need at least one or two more desks for computer and storage. as it is now, i write in bed.

-Nick

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I am so thrilled to see some beekeepers/meadmakers/candlestick makers here.

 

I, too, am a beekeeper; my husband is the meadmaker (that's how he convinced me to marry him!). This is a sad time for the bees around here - many of our area keepers been hit hard by this mysterious colony collapse syndrome and now, over the past weekend we had three days of frigid weather and many blooms, including the entire apple crop, have been decimated.

 

I hope yours are faring better, and please send kind thoughts our way.

 

Sorry, got totally off subject there! I have a lovely little cherry "ladies' desk" with a fold out writing surface and several cubbies and drawers. It was the first piece of furniture I ever purchased. Currently it's being used as a bedside table and is covered up with books in various stages of being read - but I am so inspired by this thread and your nice photos I believe I would be happier to clean it up and use it properly.

 

 

Flying by the seat of my pants.

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QUOTE (jbb @ Apr 10 2007, 05:55 PM)
I found my rolltop desk at a yard sale about 14 years ago. It's a great big thing. I have enjoyed it so much over the years. It's a brand of furniture called "Winner's Only." I was lucky to find it used as I could not have afforded it new.

Very nice!!!

I was looking at some portable writing desk but in Italy, as new product, it is very expensive (around EUR 700,00). I hope I will find something similar.

However, my parents have some old writing desks in excellent conditions, now used to store parfums in bedroom, but for the future I hope they will give us (me and my partner) both of them to use in our study room at home.

If also this solution will be difficult to reach, I think I will design one and I hope some carpenter will do it for me.

<i><b><font size="4"><a href="http://www.duninet.com" target="_blank">Andrea Duni</a></font></b><br><font color="#696969">(ex Netnemo)</font></i><br><br><b>Join the FPN Groups on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/fountainpennetwork/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/799587" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></b>

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QUOTE (jbb @ Apr 11 2007, 03:14 AM)
QUOTE (Paddler @ Apr 10 2007, 07:09 PM)
I write at an old ('40s) bandy-legged secretary I call "Aunt Polly". Howcome the name? Damfino; it just said to me, "Hi, I'm Aunt Polly!" At night, I sit and write at Aunt Polly by candle light. I dip the candles. My bees made the wax. I light the candles with flint and steel. Small rituals make the writing better.

Paddler

Wow!! Wonderful! As a mead maker I am especially happy to hear about your bees. biggrin.gif

Mead, huh? I'm impressed. I was never able to make good mead reliably. Rarely, I would get a good batch. Mostly the stuff tasted like cough medicine with kerosine in it. I gave it up in favor of homebrew.

 

Years ago, I kept 80 lbs of wax when I sold most of my bees (250 colonies). I got too old and creaky to do all that heavy labor and still keep my day job. The candles smell good, burning. I use them for light when I write and listen to my crystal radio.

 

Aunt Polly has a cubical cubby with a door on it, in the center, right above the writing surface. I call it the "tabernacle". I keep bottles of ink and ink sticks in there. Below the tabernacle is a rectangular drawer where I keep nib holders, a few favorite nibs, an eye-dropper and a couple of glass pens. Every once in a while, I discover another secret compartment in Aunt Polly. She does not give up all her secrets at once.

 

Paddler

 

Can a calculator understand a cash register?

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QUOTE (jbb @ Apr 11 2007, 06:08 PM)
Aunt Polly sounds wonderful!

The "secret" to good mead, in my opinion, is letting it age a few years -- it really mellows out. wink.gif

Yes, Aunt Polly is great. She has one minor shortcoming, however; her writing surface is a bit small. At 20" X 27", things get cramped when I am writing toward the bottom of a page. Most of my forearm is unsupported at that point and that circumstance pushes my writing to the limit of legibility. Maybe if I used a higher chair, I could learn to write with my whole arm like the experts advise; so far, I have not been able to master this art. Also, the calligraphers around here tell me "keep your eye over the pen!" That means to continuously move the page to the left as you write, so the writing at the end of the line doesn't have more slant than the writing at the beginning. Aunt Polly doesn't provide enough room to do that.

 

I have been letting my mead age a bit. I have some in the cellar I bottled in 1972. It has been racked off of all sediment, cold stabilized and resting on cork all this time. I opened a bottle a couple of years ago. It had not improved much. sick.gif

 

Paddler

 

Can a calculator understand a cash register?

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This is my writing desk. I found it at a salvage store downtown for what I consider it to be a paltry sum for this wonderful little sanctuary. She cleaned up well, and my favorite part is that it came with the key for the locks!!!

 

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/83/232370230_3ed5144f27.jpg

 

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/232370232_e48f34c756.jpg

 

smile.gif

"The older I get, the more I realize I'm getting older".

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