Late Georgian/early Victorian Clerk’s Desk

A rare 19th Century Clerk’s pitch pine desk, like that seen in illustrations of Bob Cratchit for Charles Dickens ‘Scrooge’, with the original dark glazed surface, the sloped top below a raised gallery and narrow ledge for resting pens and pencils, set with a broad single hinged leaf finished with a raised lip on the bottom edge originally to have held a ledger in place but now making for an effective support for a register or electrical device. The top lifts to reveal an interior with an arrangement of three pigeon holes over a useful storage base, above a good sized single frieze drawer retaining the original turned wooden handle, raised on plain square tapered legs – ideal for a restaurant reception desk. English, circa 1850