A dead Royal Marine, eating a dolphin, the slave trade & a writing box

Visit any antiques market or shop and you will probably see a writing slope, sometimes called a writing box.

What we now know as writing boxes date to the middle of the 18^th century, it was a practical piece of furniture used by officers in The Royal Navy; in fact, there is a famous painting of Nelson at his desk using his writing box.

Oddly for a piece of 18^th century British furniture the writing box was never linked to or named after an individual, the Davenport desk for instance was named after a Captain Davenport (RN) and the Canterbury sheet music holder had links to The Archbishop of Canterbury. I personally think that a navel officer commissioned a writing box from a ship’s carpenter and the idea caught on, after all Britain had an empire and all the interesting and rare hardwoods that it could acquire. Nelson’s box was made from timber of L’Orient, the French ship blown up by the British in The Battle of the Nile in August 1798.

So, what has all this got to do with Royal Marines, dolphins and slaves, oh and a secret agent?

Around 25 years ago I was a Regency furniture and antique box dealer, I was approached by

 a gun collector – I will not tell you his name, but he could have been in the paper trade with a licence to kill. He told me that he had a military writing box (like this one)

Georgian, military writing box

which had been at The Battle of Trafalgar! Of course it was I thought, how did he know? Well, an owner of the slope had written notes on the underside of the writing leaves. The money he was asking was a bit over the top, but I decided that I could at least take a look. I was invited to his house. There was a general-purpose machine gun on the floor in the hall and next to his phone a Walther PPK ( you must have his name now?!), both deactivated...I hoped. The box was tatty, but the copperplate handwriting was right and a contemporary record of life in the navy of George IV. I knew that I could easily get my money back selling it on if I changed my mind, I had to buy it.

19th century writing box interior

As you can see from the photos (this was a time before digital cameras), the leaves are pine – a softwood. No cabinet maker would use softwood; a ships carpenter would use anything he could lay his hands on though and the chippy knew what he was doing. This can be seen in a detail that I describe in the “Buying writing boxes” section below.

I was blown away by the copperplate writing and spent hours with my father trying to transcribe the text and work out what secrets this box held.

First, there was a diary of sorts, most we could not read but this is what we could.

Left ………………………….. 15^th March 1821 for Jamaica

 14^th March Cut 5 Chad

16^th March Caught a dolphin had it for dinner

18^th July Left Curacao

20^th October Left Port Royal Jamaica for England

25^th November Now departed this life Chas Ingram, complaint was consumption.

26^th November Committed the body of the deceased to the deep, Cpt B led prayers

Jan 1822 Paid off at Chatham

Also, we saw Euryalys, Bedford, Redpole, Thisbe.

Copperplate writing on 19th century writing box

There was a list of fuel etc and a chart with “Captain”, “Gunroom”, “Officers” written, a figure against each and the word “Night”.

We were stumped, what was the chart for? What was “Bedford” etc and the fuel list?

After some research we discovered that this writing box was owned by the purser of one of His Majesty’s ships and the chart was for candle use!

Wouldn’t it be amazing to discover who the owner of the box was?

How would we do that? This was when the internet was in its infancy.

I gave the Public Record Office in Kew a call, explained the situation and they informed me

HMS Bedford

that they had the original ships logs from 1821 there and we were welcome to go and have a look. Our only lead was 'Chas Ingram', the Royal Marine who died of consumption, and our hope was that his death would be recorded.

We spent three days reading through ships logs of November 1821 (the original leather-bound logs in the hand of the captain and his officers) and then we found it! The captain had logged not the death of Ingram but his funeral. They were on HMS Raleigh.  

A simple check on the ships musters and we found the owner of the box; he was from Halifax.  “Euryalys, Bedford, Redpole, Thisbe” were the names of ships that he had either served on or seen.

What were they doing in the Caribbean? This is from the Navel database.

Raleigh, 1806

Type: Brig sloop ;

Armament 16-gun

Launched on the Tyne : 24 Dec 1806 ;

Disposal date or year : 1841

Displacement: 382 tons

11 Oct 1820 the Admiralty announced that the commanding officers of the following vessels now cruising on the Jamaica Station, ie the Euryalus, Tamar, Confiance, Ontario, Bann, Parthian, Sophie, Nautilus, and Raleigh, have been supplied with their instructions, should the right circumstances arise, authorising them to detain Portuguese or Spanish vessels in accordance with the several Treaties with foreign powers for preventing the Illegal Traffic in slaves with those countries.

I found the above on the internet today! What an end to my story 25 years after I bought the box. “My” ship was in the Caribbean preventing the illegal traffic in slaves!

As proof here is data from the navel database and it matches the details on the box.

10 Jan 1821 at Jamaica.

Circa March 1821 Jamaican papers report that the Raleigh had spoken to a Spanish vessel who confirmed that an armistice had been concluded in the Spanish colonies.

11 Aug 1821 the Euryalus, arrived Portsmouth from Jamaica, reports that the Raleigh had been sent to Maracaibo, (now in Venezuela), and Curacoa.

20 Oct 1821 departed Port Royal, Jamaica.

15 Nov 1821 departed Havannah.

19 Dec 1821 arrived Spithead, with the Ontario, from, Havannah, having experienced very bad weather on her passage. She brought home about $300,000, on merchants account.

26 Dec 1821 departed for Chatham, to be paid off.

14 Jan 1822 paid off.

So, that’s the end to my Georgian navel experience, nearly.

We put a rocket price on that box, and it went into a cabinet in the shop with photocopies of the information that we had gained from Kew, it sat there for three years. One Saturday morning a surgeon came in, paid full price for it and bought 5 other boxes. Where did he live? Florida, USA. The slope was going home-ish.  

07521868844

Writing boxes became popular around 1820; brass bound and large in the military style for the country solicitor and smaller and prettier for a lady. More commonly veneered in figured walnut but also in flame, figured mahogany, rosewood and later decorated with the intricate inlays of Tunbridge. Incidentally, Rosewood has nothing to do with roses but when sanded it smells like rose petals!

The layout of writing boxes was basically the same for 150 years. A top that opens to reveal a writing surface either in baze, goat skiver (skin) or a velour, the velour and skivers usually embossed with gold details and edging. The writing leaves are inside in two opening parts, sometimes hinged. Occasionally under the top surface there are secret drawers hidden behind a panel - a place to keep your most private things! The top of the inside of the box had sections for two inkwells, a removable pen tray and a section for wafers – an alternative to sealing wax.

Original 19th century writing box

This box is now quite rare, mainly because us box dealers did not get our hands on it in the 1990’s and paint, strip and re-polish it! It is in totally original condition complete with scratches to the polish and discolouration to the brass work. It was made in the 1860’s -how  do I know that? Look at the writing surface, it’s black; Queen Victoria dressed in black after Prince Albert died at Windsor in December 1861, probably of Typhoid. The official mourning lasted until the Queen's death in January 1901 - Black became vogue. The box is made in solid mahogany and veneered in figured walnut with brass name plate to the lid and a brass escutcheon.

Victorian writing box interior

The interior has the original writing surface and layout. It is very unusual for a box like this to have retained the original inkwells which are in perfect condition. The pen tray has slight veneer damage and this box has two secret drawers – being secret I will not tell you how to access them! If you see this box in a shop in restored condition with a new skiver it will be priced at £80.00 - £100.00, in this original condition to a collector we would be looking at around £500.00.

What to look out for when buying a writing box  

The same as when you but any antique, watch out for damage, veneer and inlay is

Damaged Victorian writing box inlay

expensive to repair.

The veneer can split where the body of the box meets the lid, tops shrink and take the veneer with them. I never really worry if the bottom is cracked, it is a thin piece of solid wood over more than 100 years it should move.

Not having a key is not important, the locks are simple and a key can be cut, a missing lock though is a problem as is a damaged lock and keep

The most important thing though is originality of the leaves. There are plenty of writing boxes around missing their original interiors which have been replaced with new ones.

Perfect condition Victorian ink wells

Original leaves always have timber either side of them running at right angles to the grain, this is the detail I mentioned on the Georgian box and it stops the leaf from warping and twisting.

Having inkwells is an advantage most are 1 7/8” square bottomed but they are expensive, even reproduction ones are £25.00 + each.

Writing boxes make brilliant presents for graduations, weddings (to keep the cards in) and special birthdays and if you are looking for an investment now is the time to buy.

As with all my blogs and the sell-my-antiques website I hold the copyright.Please feel free to email me for permission to reproduce in whole or part.

cashwaiting@sell-my-antiques.co.uk