Antique Rosewood Writing Slope

As promised I’ve finally bought something that isn’t porcelain, and since I also love antique boxes and writing slopes I thought this was a good buy even though it needs some restoration.

It cost me £19.99 + £8.85 postage, the auction details are below:

Now, there are some small problems with this box, the main one being that the slope itself is missing, but how serious is that?

Today really writing slopes serve no purpose, and they are only collected by writing slope collectors or as decorative pieces of antique furniture.

However, with the slope removed it could be used as a totally practical box, which really should open up the market a little bit – someone looking for an attractive box could well buy it, since it has an actual use today.

There are a couple of other features that I really like.

Firstly, the seller has not really highlighted very well just how big this box is. Most writing slopes will be around 12 inches in width, but this one is an impressive 18 inches – that’s quite a size!

The second thing is that the photos (which aren’t very clear) seem to show it having a working Bramah lock, complete with it’s key (see below).

Bramah locks were the first real security locks that were supposed to be impossible to pick, they were designed in 1784 when Joseph Bramah obtained a patent for a “new and infallible lock.”

Jospeh Bramah was one of those ingenius people that seem to have all but vanished today, he also invented an early form of flushing toilet, and a printing press for printing banknotes!

Bramah was so sure of the security of his lock that he offered a prize of 200 Guineas (a substantial amount of money at the time) to anyone who could open the lock.

The challenge remained intact for 67 years until an American locksmith managed to pick the lock at the great Exhibition in 1851 – but it took him over 50 hours spread over 16 days to do it!

Now, I am pretty sure that this is a Bramah lock on this box, but of course I can’t be 100% sure until it arrives, but assuming it is and I were a complete philistine, then the best way to make money from this would be to remove the lock from the box, and sell the lock and key seperatley to the box itself.

People will pay a fair amount of money for working Bramah locks with their keys since they can be used to repair other antique boxes, etc that require their lock replacing.

By doing this I should be able to recover the costs of buying the box from the lock alone, the box itself would then be the icing on the cake.

Unfortunately  Ican’t quite bring myself to vandalise things like this and to seperate a perfectly good lock & box that have been together for probably 170 years, so I think I’ll take some better pictures, highlight it’s unusually vast size, and the fact that it has a Bramah lock, and that should hopefully do the trick!

There is one other great thing about this box that I forgot to mention – it is absolutely gorgeous too!

The rosewood veneer and mother of pearl inlay are very striking, where could you get something of such fantastic quality today, and how much would it cost you?

Keep calling back to see how it does!