When I was writing Where There’s A Will, I knew I wanted a roll-top desk with a secret or two to hide. But what sort of roll-top desk? After a bit of online research and some photos to guide the story along, I selected the Cutler Desk Company. Their location, timing, and quality of manufacture ticked all the right boxes.
Here’s a bit about the company:
Abner Cutler & Son, cabinetmakers in Buffalo, NY, started production in the late 1820s. In 1882, the US Patent Office issued a patent for the first American-made roll-top desk to Abner Cutler of Buffalo, NY (though similar desks had been seen in the United States and Europe before Cutler’s patent). The firm specialized in roll-top desks and was granted seven patents related to the desk’s mechanism.
In the 1870s, the company was known as ‘Cutler & Son’ and exhibited some desks at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. By the early 1900s, the firm was known as the ‘Cutler Desk Co.’ It was taken over by the Sikes Chair Co., also of Buffalo, in 1930.
The roll-top became a standard item of the Victorian office. Cutler’s company flourished until around 1919, when the roll-top design declined in popularity and was replaced by Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.
And now, an excerpt from Where There’s a Will:
Levon inserted the key into the desk’s lock and slowly slid the roll-top back to reveal the interior: two rows of eight drawers, four to a side, a small cubbyhole, two center slots for correspondence, and four generously-proportioned bottom drawers. The desktop was solid, careful inspection revealed indentations in the surface made by pens of the past. A circular ink stain in the right-hand corner where an inkpot would have stood added charm. A small key tucked inside the cubbyhole opened the lock on the bottom bank of drawers.
“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” he said, opening drawers at random. “Hey, how cool is this?” He carefully removed a parchment document, yellowed by age, and handed it to Arabella.
A. Cutler & Son, Buffalo, New York. Number 073-SD, oak desk, $38. Sold February 19, 1900 to T. Eaton & Co., Toronto, Canada.
Now, I’ll admit I’m not 100% sure that T. Eaton & Co. sold Cutler desks, but the store was headquartered in Toronto, just across Lake Ontario from Buffalo, and they do offer roll-top desks in their Fall and Winter Catalogue 1899-1900. Why not Cutler?