Mauchline Tartan Ware Desk Set

This Tartan ware pedestal desk set has a three compartment letter holder. On the front is a metal decoration resembling a cherub. To either side are inkwells with brass tops and in the front is a large pen/pencil holder. (There is some loss to the tartan on the upper right-hand corner of the envelope box).

The production of Scottish white-wood products, or Mauchline ware, was carried out from the 1820s until 1939 by the firm of W & A Smith among other less long-lived manufacturers. Often, they used a basic transfer, each piece having the view of the place of purchase. The transfer subjects ranged across Scotland and more of the British Isles to the rest of the world. Tartan ware was also extremely popular because of the Smiths inventing a machine for “weaving” tartan designs on paper. A fire in 1933 stopped production, which was never restarted, and W & A Smith finally closed in 1939.