Tools of the trade: Charles Dickens, Hilary Mantel, and Barbara Taylor Bradford

Pens and writing desks of the rich and famous are always in vogue

Auction houses and book fairs are awash with the literary paraphenalia of famous writers at the moment.

So, for example, going under the hammer at RR Auction on May 15 is the ornate travel writing desk used by Charles Dickens (pictured above). It’s a fruitwood case with mother-of-pearl inlay, and comes with two original glass inkwells, a letter opener, and a silver porte-crayon equipped with a quill nib in a mahogany tray. The two top flaps open to reveal an angled leather-covered writing surface.

It was known in the Dickens household as ‘Venerables’ (the nickname given to him by the rest of the family) and inside is a silver plaque naming it. The same auction house is also offering the great mean’s 32-piece silverware set from his Kent home at Gad’s Hill Place, each piece engraved with his 'CD’ monogram.

If that’s not your cup of tea, then head to the rare book fair Firsts London at the Saatchi Gallery next week where Fold the Corner Books is selling Hilary Mantel’s pine writing desk for £40,000 (it last appeared at Bonhams a couple of years ago when it was sold to support the work of the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival in local schools and was sold for £5,355).

This is the desk where Dame Hilary wrote the Wolf Hall trilogy - it was a bespoke build for her - and she once said it had “served me well, and has a great record of turning out prize winners”. It comes with a collection of 25 her works, most of them signed/inscribed and in excellent condition, plus a handwritten letter from her to the desk’s new owner dated April 2022 about its history and her time writing on it. Inside one of the desk drawers are some odds and ends left deliberately by Mantel including paperback copies of her novels, pencils, and a sealing wax kit.

Sadly, it’s too late to make a bid on Barbara Taylor Bradford’s writing desks and pens. They came up at Doyles on Wednesday. Her Louis XVI-style 20th century mahogany Bureau Plat went for $1,024, and her George III-style 20th century Burl walnut desk made $640. Her black Cross fountain pen from TKHOUSE with a 14k gold nib, and a cap engraved with ‘Barbara Taylor Bradford’ (together with a silver-plated ballpoint pen) was sold for $320.

Also on the block was her Tiffany & Co. sterling silver inkstand and pen tray ($896) and her IBM Wheelwriter typewriter which had an estimate of $2,000-3,000 but doesn’t seem to have sold so keep a lookout for its return.

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On a personal note, to mark VE Day this week Sam Bilton interviewed me for her marvellous Comfortably Hungry podcast (winner in the prestigious Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards' audio category) about my latest book While There Is Tea There Is Hope and the part tea played in WWII. You can listen to it via the link below. I also talk about one of my previous books Menus That Made History, Welsh literature, snooker, and When Books Go Bad.

Bonus episode: While there is tea, there is hope