Teak Roll Top Writing Desk with Pigeonhole Gallery

For Somebody Who Still Writes By Hand

This is the desk of the old kacheri and the estate office, the one the munshi sat at with the bahi khata open and a Hero pen behind his ear and we make it now in the same shape with the same joints. It suits anybody who writes for hours and needs the last 3 days of work to stay exactly where it was left. Letters, a diary, a manuscript in longhand, the notes for a book that is taking 4 years, all of it sits in the pigeonholes at eye level where you can see it.

What Is In It

• 7 arched pigeonholes across the gallery.
• 10 drawers in all, 6 small ones in the gallery, 1 wide one under the writing top, 3 in the pedestal.
• Roll top runs on wooden slats and closes over the gallery and the writing surface both.
• Solid teak, hand cut and hand finished.
• Approx 135 cm wide, 70 cm deep, 120 cm high with the gallery.
• Knee opening on the left side only.

The Roll

Pull the top down and everything on the desk goes out of sight, the half written page, the pen, the 40 loose sheets. That is the point of the shape. In a house the reasons are practical. Jodhpur gets aandhi from April to June and a desk with the top down keeps the dust off a week's writing. A closed desk also keeps a 4 year old's hands off the ink and the pages, which for somebody writing something they are not ready to show is reason enough.

The Left Side Is Open

The legs are different on each side. The right is a full pedestal with 3 deep drawers, the left is a single cabriole leg with a stretcher running across to the pedestal. So the knee room is on the left, wide enough for a chair with arms, but if you write with your left hand and sit turned to that side, check the opening against your chair before buying.