Victorian writing box with tray

This Victorian box came to us in a poor state of repair. The interior of the box had what appeared to be the original pink lining inside the lid, otherwise it was covered in white paper. We found that in some places the paper was covering mahogany veneer underneath and as can be seen from the ‘before’ photos the tray and writing slope had seen better days. The fold down panel inside the lid had been glued in place and it looked as though behind it there used to be an envelope for letters etc.

It was decided to keep the original pink lined panel inside the lid, as the client remembered that from her childhood and we made a new envelope behind the panel. The tray was repaired as was the writing slope and once the paper was taken off the original mahogany veneer this was re-polished. New leather with tooling was fitted to the writing slope and finally the tray was lined with paper to match the pink fabric. Once the outside was cleaned and polished the transformation was complete. A lot of work but a lovely project to work on.