19th century writing slope restoration

Restoring this 19th century writing slope was a delight to do.

These elegant portable desks were once essential tools for writers and travellers, combining practicality with fine craftsmanship.

Over time, many writing slopes have suffered from wear, damage, or dull finishes and especially with torn leather inlay.

With careful restoration, you can revive their beauty and functionality while preserving their character.

Understanding the Writing Slope

A writing slope is a compact wooden box with a hinged lid that opens to reveal a slanted writing surface, compartments for paper, ink bottles, and pens. This one included a hidden compartment with 3 little drawers behind the panel.

They were popular in the 1800s for their portability and convenience. The wood used is often mahogany, rosewood, or walnut, finished with shellac or wax to enhance the grain and protect the surface.

The Restoration

For this restoration, I first dismantled the writing slope into its individual components, so that I could repair and treat each part.

After repairs were done, I cleaned and removed the old shellac, which I did using 0000 wire wool and 1,200 grit sandpaper.

I had to hammer the brass strips to straighten them and remove some of the harsh dents. Polishing the brass was done using my new toy, a Foredom Pendant motor, with various polishing wheels and Jewellers rouge.

After preparing all the wood components, it was time to finish. I chose Gilboys 'Antique Gold' beeswax polish (https://gilboys.co.uk/). This was recommended to me by a restorer and it is now my 'go to' polish for any work I do. I chose this because of the properties of this wax, which you can find out more about on my blog here.

Holes and deep scratches were filled in using Gilboys beeswax scratch repair cubes.

That done, I assembled the writing slope, leaving me with just one last job... adding on the leather inlay.

Writing slopes and writing bureaus have an inlay area for the leather, which is usually pasted in place. Over time, the leather tears down the fold. In order to help the leather last longer, I used a strip of cotton material to support the fold.

Over time, this box has slightly warped, enough to stop the lock from working. I dismantled the lock and again, the Foredom pendant motor came to the rescue, which I used to file the catches down by 1/2mm using a fine sanding wheel.

19th Century writing slope before restoration.

19th century writing slope after restoration. Brass polished and the wood finished with Gilboy Wax.

New leather inlay with fabric support under the fold.

The results

Suffice to say that this has turned out well! The Gilboys wax made all the difference to the wood finish, bringing out the natural grain and colours of the wood.

The lock works perfectly and the brass stands out nicely.