Lap Desks were to some degree the laptop computers of their day. When a person traveled to far off places they brought their “desks” with them. While traveling they wanted to protect valuable items such as jewelry or documents. The use of secret Compartments in Lap Desks was created to use an item they would already take with them and adapt it to another purpose – protecting their valuables.
There are a number of secret Compartments types. The most common was a false shelf hiding a number of tiny shelves – commonly two to three. These were small shelves good for tiny objects like jewelry. In many cases lap desks had false tops within desk – you slide a piece of wood over – usually under the inkwell compartment inside desk and underneath is a small storage space.
The mechanisms used for these secret Compartments were ingenious – there were three or four common ways to open these spring loaded sections:
- The most common is lifting the sidewall of the compartment you held your inkwell in. This caused the false shelf to pop open revealing 2 or 3 smaller compartments.
- The next most common was pushing down on the bottom of inkwell or stamp tray compartment – this would allow the shelf to be released.
- In some cases you would have to do both 1. and 2. above together for shelf or secret Compartments to be visible.
- There was also “the hole” method – you would have to place something in a small hole in lap desk for mechanism to be released. These holes ranged from pen sized to very small – where you needed a specific tool or object to open. These are more rare.
My love of desks has lead me to many discoveries over the years. Have found stamps, documents, pens, and other objects while working with these “Secret Compartments” – What will you find?
