# Desk With Ink Well



## RedGinger (Aug 27, 2011)

Here is my new work area.  Joe moved everything for me, and set it up.  It's an old desk he found awhile back, in someone's junk pile.  It is cool because there is a spot where the ink well would have been.  Someone filled it in at some point, though[&:]  I'm not even sure how old the desk is.


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## JOETHECROW (Aug 27, 2011)

Penn Digger calls it a University desk? I was fixing his (Tom's) pipes a few years back and had to run home for a hotter torch...As I was heading out of town, I saw this old gent lugging it down his front steps,...He set it right down in the snow! I stopped dead center in the road and asked if he was getting rid of it or moving? He says "Take it" So I did....[] Here's some detail of it if anyone knows what it is, or more about it...Please pardon the dust..Thanks,....Joe


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## JOETHECROW (Aug 27, 2011)

*


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## JOETHECROW (Aug 27, 2011)

I've also heard folks call it a "student's desk" is that correct? It appears to be oak, with a sloped and hinged top,...Here's the detail of where the ink well was, and it also looks like it had a doweled rail at one time,...Thanks for looking and any info anyone may have...


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## Rockhounder55 (Aug 28, 2011)

I can remember having desks at school when I was a little kid that had the holes for the ink bottles to go in. It would be fun to find the correct bottle for your desk, and drill that plug out.  ~Mike


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## RedGinger (Aug 28, 2011)

I like that idea, Mike!  Plus, there's never enough room to store all the bottles anyway lol.  As it is, I've had to change my "work station" for today due having the spine of a 90 year old.[X(]


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## epackage (Aug 28, 2011)

I have a steel desk with wood seat and similar top(1920's) but it has it's inkwell. I can't fit in the desk seat though at 6'-3" 275lbs...LOL


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## ktbi (Aug 29, 2011)

What is the diameter of the plugged hole for the ink well? Is there a structure underneath the patch to hold an inkwell - some kind of bottom support or something?  I have about 100 inkwells and would be happy to send one your direction if I have one that fits.....Ron


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## RED Matthews (Aug 29, 2011)

Hi this is an interesting thread, because I went to a one room country school house where all the desks had ink wells.  We used the old stick pens to write with.  The school had a pot belly stove in the center, a picture of George Washington on the south wall, two black boards on the west wall, two coat closets. and an entrance foyer.  Two out houses and a wood shed for fire wood.  And a drilled well with an old fashioned lever water pump.
 Memories.  I see one of my grade school class mates every week we go to the music in the park at Watkins Glen.  There were from seven to eleven kids in the school and the teacher taught all grades.  When we had a spelling bee, I discovered that if I miss spelled a word I got to set down - so I didn't learn to spell for a long time.  Thanks for spell check on the computer   Such is life.  RED Matthews.


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## JOETHECROW (Aug 29, 2011)

> ORIGINAL: ktbi
> 
> What is the diameter of the plugged hole for the ink well? Is there a structure underneath the patch to hold an inkwell - some kind of bottom support or something?  I have about 100 inkwells and would be happy to send one your direction if I have one that fits.....Ron


 
 Ron,...I'll throw a tape measure across there when I get a little free time,...Nice of you to offer![]


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## JOETHECROW (Aug 29, 2011)

> ORIGINAL: RED Matthews
> 
> Hi this is an interesting thread, because I went to a one room country school house where all the desks had ink wells.  We used the old stick pens to write with.  The school had a pot belly stove in the center, a picture of George Washington on the south wall, two black boards on the west wall, two coat closets. and an entrance foyer.  Two out houses and a wood shed for fire wood.  And a drilled well with an old fashioned lever water pump.
> Memories.  I see one of my grade school class mates every week we go to the music in the park at Watkins Glen.  There were from seven to eleven kids in the school and the teacher taught all grades.  When we had a spelling bee, I discovered that if I miss spelled a word I got to set down - so I didn't learn to spell for a long time.  Thanks for spell check on the computer   Such is life.  RED Matthews.


 
 Red,...We still heat with a pot belly stove...[] (Laur hates it)...But it makes great heat. Your schoolhouse sounds pretty cool, We have a salvaged/restored one roomer at out local historic societys "Crook Farm" I'll see if Lauren has a couple pics in her computer files...It looks just like your's sounds.


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## JOETHECROW (Aug 29, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*

Here you go Red...


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## JOETHECROW (Aug 29, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*

* They were giving tours this day....


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## rockbot (Aug 30, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  JOETHECROW
> 
> Penn Digger calls it a University desk? I was fixing his (Tom's) pipes a few years back and had to run home for a hotter torch...As I was heading out of town, I saw this old gent lugging it down his front steps,...He set it right down in the snow! I stopped dead center in the road and asked if he was getting rid of it or moving? He says "Take it" So I did....[]Â Here's some detail of it if anyone knows what it is, or more about it...Please pardon the dust..Thanks,....Joe


 
 I remember getting my fingers slammed in those things in 1st grade.[8|] The school I went to was well over a hundred years old at the time.
 cool!


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## glass man (Aug 30, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*



> ORIGINAL:  JOETHECROW
> 
> * They were giving tours this day....


 

 I have two old school desks with the ink well holes in them..One is from and like the ones in this pic. the other in a bit newer,probably from the 20s or so...They are for sale...but can you imagine trying to ship them!![][] 

 In the 20s when my dad was at school one day[probably similar to the one in the pic],it started snowing really hard one day.The kids were all at the windows looking out at it come down.Years ago a lady that was there that day said my pop told everybody that if it kept snowing like this they would have to climb up into a tree just to take a shi# !![8D]JAMIE


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## towhead (Aug 30, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*

Did you dig up that outhouse at your school Red?  Here's what my desk looked like.... -Julie  Laminate top, wood, janitor adjustable, seat.


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## ktbi (Aug 30, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*

Jamie - to the guys in the class, a tree dump would be more like a challenge than a threat. Probably draw targets in the snow and award prizes for closest to the pin or a hole in one!   []


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## glass man (Sep 16, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*



> ORIGINAL:  ktbi
> 
> Jamie - to the guys in the class, a tree dump would be more like a challenge than a threat. Probably draw targets in the snow and award prizes for closest to the pin or a hole in one!Â   []


 

 [][][]


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## CALDIGR2 (Sep 17, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*

When I went to Catholic grade school in the '50s we all had desks like that and were required by the nuns to use the ink holders. We all had old fountain type pens and could only use royal blue and black ink. Back then the bottles of ink cost a dime.


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## glass man (Sep 17, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*

Once bought an ink that was embossed on bottom "school ink" so inks were specially made to fit the holes.It was the thing for little boys [dad!] to take girls "pig tails" and dip them in ink!My dad was always a trouble maker.Once took a wasp separeated it from its tail ..put the tail on the end of his pen and stuck it to the girl in front of him butt...dad was not counting on the results.She was a large girl he said..screamed at the top of her lungs and jumped straight up taking the front of the desk with her!Dad said he was so shocked he was still sitting there holding the pen with the wasp tail on it...giving no doubt as to what had happened![8D] This was in the 1920s.Pop got a "Whipping" the first day of school for peeing off the front steps of school cause he didn't know where the bathroom was ![] Once at a country school where a teacher was dicided to be too abusive in his ways..at recess dad and two [dad said guys that were basically men and were shaving...just were not real smart and back then kids went o school when they could] "KIDS"took a rope, tied it around the teacher's neck and drug him around the school yard a time or two...the teacher quit then and there![] AH the good ole school days!JAMIE


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## Stardust (Sep 18, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*

REALLY nice desk laur  []


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## toddrandolph (Oct 2, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*

I know a lot more about antique furniture than I do bottles! That desk would date somewhere in the 1890-1920 age range and is not the typical school desk with the fold up seat. It's a nice desk and much nicer than the average school desk, though that is apparently what it is. I've never seen another like it. It is more in the style of a teacher's desk but looks too small. The ink well hole also looks bigger than average. There were bottles made for the standard ink bottle hole, but I think they are too small for yours. I have one of those, that was made in Cleveland. Your desk would have had a gallery around the back and sides, that is why there are filled in holes there. There are also some nails around the hole which makes me think it may have had maybe an iron holder for the ink bottle that went in the hole, just a guess. I'm a trash picker too, so I too would have stopped in the middle of the road to grab that one, good find.


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## RICKJJ59W (Oct 2, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*



> ORIGINAL:  JOETHECROW
> 
> Here you go Red...


 
 I would hate to be the kid that sat right next to that Pot Belly[]


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## JOETHECROW (Oct 2, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*



> I would hate to be the kid that sat right next to that Pot Belly


 
 Yes,...unless you were the poor kid that had to walk 10 miles through the snow to get there...[]


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## xxfollyxx (Oct 2, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*



> ORIGINAL:  RICKJJ59W
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
 I have a set of fold up bench type desks like the one on the bottom right. It has a metal lined hole for an ink in the top corner with a hinged ornate flap on it.
 Still has the floorboards attached to the bottom. 
 My uncle picked it up years ago when they ripped a bunch out of an old schoolhouse and he took one home, and ended up giving it to me.


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## JOETHECROW (Oct 2, 2011)

*RE: Schoolhouse pics for RED Matthews...*



> ORIGINAL: toddrandolph
> 
> I know a lot more about antique furniture than I do bottles! That desk would date somewhere in the 1890-1920 age range and is not the typical school desk with the fold up seat. It's a nice desk and much nicer than the average school desk, though that is apparently what it is. I've never seen another like it. It is more in the style of a teacher's desk but looks too small. The ink well hole also looks bigger than average. There were bottles made for the standard ink bottle hole, but I think they are too small for yours. I have one of those, that was made in Cleveland. Your desk would have had a gallery around the back and sides, that is why there are filled in holes there. There are also some nails around the hole which makes me think it may have had maybe an iron holder for the ink bottle that went in the hole, just a guess. I'm a trash picker too, so I too would have stopped in the middle of the road to grab that one, good find.


 
 Thanks for the interesting info Todd,...I searched google images for quite awhile and saw none like it...Other folks have suggested the teachers type desk too, but for it's diminutive size...member surfaceone had a pretty intriguing suggestion, that it was perhaps from some type of girls school, and the enclosed leg area was a nod towards victorian modesty!


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