High Quality 19th Century Writing Slope once owned by Lewis ...

Estimate

£160 - £180

High Quality 19th Century Writing Slope once owned by Lewis Randle Starkey MP (1836-1910). What is obvious from this box is that they were makers of quality and their use of a Bramah Lock (Brass lock plate stamped "Bramah J.Dyus London") and Berry Patent wells are testament to this. This box is remarkable for its completeness original tools and travelling inkwell and vesta case (likely to be Berry's). This is a double action slope opening first to reveal three reusable faux slates to use with a pencil. This section then opens again to reveal a a slope to one side. The piano hinges are all solid brass and the lock a top-notch Bramah (no key), a true sign of quality, this would have been an expensive box in it's day. The leather exterior is embossed in a quilted design and has a heavy duty cast brass carry handle to the top, coordinating with the brass escutcheon. The handle engraved "Lewis R Starkey". Pen knife by Joseph Rodgers and Sons of Sheffield. The company's trade mark was a star and cross. Rodgers was one of a handful of cutlers with a Royal Warrant. Cutlers to Her Majesty refers to Queen Victoria.
Lewis Randle Starkey (13 March 1836 – 16 September 1910) was a British Conservative politician. He was the eldest son of John Starkey of Spring Lodge, Huddersfield and his wife, Sarah Anne, daughter of Joseph Armitage, a millowner of Milnsbridge, Yorkshire. Following education at Rugby School and the University of Berlin he entered "commercial pursuits" in Yorkshire.[2] In October 1857, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the 2nd West Yorkshire Regiment of Yeomanry. In 1858 he married his namesake, Constance Margaret, daughter of Thomas Starkey. He was appointed a deputy lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire on 6 December 1867,[4] and was promoted to captain in the Yeomanry on 22 February 1868.
In 1868 he was chosen by the Conservative Party to be a parliamentary candidate for the Southern Division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, but failed to be elected. He was the party's candidate again at the next general election in 1874, and was elected in the place of the sitting Liberal member of parliament, Henry F Beaumont. By this time, he was living at Heath Hall, near Wakefield. Starkey only served one term in the Commons, losing his seat at the 1880 general election.
Having left parliament, Starkey and his family moved to Norwood Park, near Southwell, Nottinghamshire in 1881.[8] He held the office of High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1891, was an alderman on Nottinghamshire County Council, and was appointed a deputy lieutenant of the county in January 1891 He was a director of the Midland Railway. Starkey's eldest son was John R Starkey, who became MP for Newark, and a baronet. Lewis Randle Starkey died in September 1910, aged 74.