Desk, Portable

Description

Portable desk with slant top that is fixed. A nicely dovetailed drawer with sloping ends fits into the space under the top, being inserted into the larger side. Below that, a shallow drawer fits into one end. The desk case is of butternut (ends and sides), white pine (fixed top), and tulip poplar bottom. All corners, except where the two drawer openings are, are dovetailed. Where the drawers enter on adjacent sides, the partial end is held to the partial side by a small strip of brass screwed up into the end and down into the side. Drawer fronts are also butternut, sides and backs are white pine, as are the bottom and partitions in the drawer with sloping sides. The shallow bottom drawer has a tulip poplar bottom and is painted yellow on the inside. The larger, top drawer originally had a surface lock mounted inside the front that locked the drawer by extending a lock bar into a fitting on the underside of the top. The drawer was opened by pulling on the key. Inside of sloping-sided drawer is a dark bluish-green color, likely to be ink. Also, the side of the sloping drawer is slotted and in the end of the case, above the opening for the bottom drawer, a brass fitting is set into the end that has a tapped hole in its center. A finger-turned screw with a cylindrical stud on its end is threaded through the end such that the cylindrical stud slides into the slot to support the drawer.

Notes

This desk is of the same design as 1954.6655.1, but the design flaws of this desk seem to have been corrected in that desk.