Chapter 01
Nothing was chosen. Things accumulated and stayed because they were useful, or because they've always been there.
The mahogany pedestal desk. The green banker's lamp. The Pelikan filled from a bottle.
This desk is inhabited. The technology is accommodated by the desk. The desk is not organized around the technology.
On the surface
The desk itself
Mahogany or walnut pedestal desk with drawers. Substantial, dark, with some mass to it. Leather inlay in hunter green or cognac.
Estate sale · Restoration Hardware · antique shops
The banker's lamp
Green glass shade, brass base. The green shade casts warm light and makes the whole surface feel like a private world.
Authentic Models · antique shops · eBay
Leather desk blotter
Hunter green or burgundy, not new cognac. The corners curl very slightly.
Smythson · Asprey (estate sale) · antique store
Pelikan M800
Green-black or classic black with gold trim. A bottle of Pelikan 4001 blue-black ink beside it. The ink bottle does disproportionate work.
Pelikan · JetPens · Cult Pens
Silver letter tray
Heavy English silver plate or pewter. Tarnished, polished once a year by habit. Paper has a place and goes there. The tray is never overflowing.
Antique shops · eBay · estate sales
Crystal tumbler
Waterford or similar. It belongs on the desk the way the desk belongs in the room.
Waterford · Riedel · vintage crystal
Small framed photograph
Black and white. Silver frame, slightly tarnished. Not a recent photo.
Silver frame: antique shops · eBay
Smythson Panama notebook
Navy or cognac. One at a time. When full it goes on the shelf with the others — same size, same color, spines out. Ten years of them on a shelf is one of the most correct objects in this world.
Smythson · smythson.com
Conspicuously absent