Jane Austen's Portable Writing Desk

 

For Jane’s birthday on December 16, 1794, Jane's father bought her a writing desk. It was made of mahogany with a drawer that locked. It folded to make it portable and came with a glass inkstand. Jane wrote on small strips of paper that she tucked into the drawer. 

Jane took her desk with when she traveled, it had its own adventure as she related to Cassie by letter: “After we had been here a quarter of an hour, it was discovered that my writing and dressing boxes had been by accident put into a chaise which was just packing off as we came in, and were driven away towards Gravesend on their way to the West Indies. No part of my property could have been such a prize before, for in my writing-box was all my worldly wealth.”

Jane especially worried that her manuscript would be hard to replace. Fortunately, a man on horse went after the chaise and brought back the boxes within half an hour.