Beschreibung:

DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870). A Napoleon III lacquered brass-mounted, brass-inlaid, red-stained tortoiseshell, Boulle marquetry, rosewood and ebony writing-desk, used by Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place [circa 1860].
DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870). A Napoleon III lacquered brass-mounted, brass-inlaid, red-stained tortoiseshell, Boulle marquetry, rosewood and ebony writing-desk, used by Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place [circa 1860]. A WRITING-DESK FROM CHARLES DICKENS'S BEDROOM AT GAD'S HILL PLACE The hinged top enclosing a removeable pen tray and two glass fitments with brass caps for ink and sand, with a blue velvet writing slope with outer blind Greek key border and inner border of gilt fillets with fleur-de-lys embellished corners, enclosing a rosewood-lined compartment, the tortoiseshell slant lid inlaid with fine brass foliate scrolls and central cartouche with engraved monogram "CD". 11 inches (28.5 cm) deep, 14¼ inches (36.4 cm) wide, 3½ inches (9cm) high at the back, 2½ inches (6.5 cm) high at the front. (Brass mount a bit loose in places, small crack in tortoiseshell on lid, one or two chips to the wood, velvet slope lacking lifting ribbon, one small screw missing.) Custom red cloth folding box by Riviere. Provenance : Charles Dickens (1812-1870) certificate of authenticity from Georgina Hogarth (1827-1917), Dickens's sister-in-law. [ With :] Autograph note signed ("Georgina Hogarth") authenticating the provenance of the writing-desk: "I certify that this desk was always used by my Brother-in-Law Charles Dickens in his Bedroom at Gad's Hill from the time he went there to live until the day of his death 9. June 1870. Georgina Hogarth." Heavy blue cloth-grained stock (86 x 113 mm). IN WINTER HE WROTE... IN HIS BEDROOM - AT ALL TIMES, AND WHEREVER HE LIVED, A FAVOURITE WORKING-PLACE WITH HIM..." (Kitton Dickensiana , page 36) Fulfilling a childhood dream Dickens purchased the house at Gad's Hill in March of 1856, and from then he did much of his writing there, including some of his greatest works: A Tale of Two Cities , Great Expectations , and Our Mutual Friend . Dickens is known to have worked extensively in his study at the iconic mahogany pedestal desk and walnut desk chair sold at Christie's (4 June 2008, lot 369); from 1865, in a Swiss chalet which he had reconstructed in the grounds; and in his bedroom. Wilkie Collins in a letter to Fred Chapman of Chapman and Hall dated 11 May 1873 a propos his collaboration with Dickens on No Thoroughfare describes how "... we put the story together in the Swiss Chalet at Gadshill and we finished the Fourth Act side by side at two desks in his bedroom at Gadshill." A similar writing desk from Dickens's bedroom, with an accompanying note from Georgina Hogarth was sold at auction (Sotheby's London 6 July 1977, lot 340), this is the other. The desk from the chalet, is now at the Charles Dickens Museum in London, a bequest of Lord Rosebery. An extravagant and conspicuous consumer all his adult life, it is highly likely that Dickens bought or was given this exquisite example of French marquetry from the Second Empire (1852/4-1870) on one of the frequent, and often secret, visits to France that he made throughout the early 1860s. Between 1860 and 1864 Dickens rented a house (now known as "Chalet Dickens") from the local mayor at Condette six miles south of Boulogne. Claire Tomalin (in her book The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens ) and others argue that Dickens stayed there with his mistress the actress Ellen Ternan. "There is no period in his life in which Dickens pays so many visits to France, generally alone: at least 10 separate visits are recorded in his letters; there were probably more... he uses deliberately mystifying language about his visits: he is about "to vanish into space for a day or two," he tells [Wilkie] Collins on 1 January 1863; on 9 August he tells him he is "thinking of evaporating for a fortnight on the 18th;" and on 26 June 1864 he describes his next visit as "my present Mysterious Disappearance" (Pilgrim Letters , volume 10, Preface , p. xii). In his will Dickens created his cherished sister-in-law Georgina Hogarth (who had lived wi