You Can Buy Novelist Charles Dickens’ Personal Travel Writing Desk and Silverware Set The ornate desk features a silver plaque with a personal inscription that references the English writer’s family nickname, “Venerables” The exterior is made of fruitwood adorned with mother-of-pearl inlay and silver banding. RR Auction Book lovers have a rare opportunity to buy a travel writing desk and silverware set once owned by the British writer Charles Dickens. Both items are up for grabs at a sale organized by RR Auctions, where bidding will run through May 14. The ornate desk, which is expected to fetch more than $20,000, has a fruitwood exterior adorned with mother-of-pearl inlay and silver banding. Measuring roughly 14 inches long, the small box opens to reveal an angled leather writing slope. Inside, the desk houses two original glass inkwells, a letter opener and a quill-tipped silver porte-crayon. The interior also features a silver plaque with a personal inscription that reads: “Venerables writing box and pen holder, presented to Evelyn by your Mama, on the occasion of being appointed schoolmistress.” The wooden box features an inscription referring to "Venerables," the family’s nickname for Dickens. RR Auction “Venerables” was the family’s nickname for Dickens, according to an article by his granddaughter, Mary Angela Dickens, published in the Strand magazine. A copy of the magazine piece is also included in the sale, along with a slip of paper signed in ink by Dickens. “I have no recollection of ever being told that my grandfather was a great man,” she wrote. “There is no shadow in my memory of ever having feared him. But all my recollection is pervaded with the sense that ‘Venerables’—as I was taught to call him—was not as other men.” The autograph is written on a piece of stationery from Gad’s Hill Place, the country home in Kent, England, that Dickens owned for the last 14 years of his life. Whoever walks away with the desk will also get a small plaque portrait of Dickens, which is protected by a period wooden frame. Inside, the desk houses two original glass inkwells, a letter opener and a quill-tipped silver porte-crayon. RR Auction According to the auction house, the travel writing desk is in “very good to fine” condition. The screws securing the upper flap are loose, and one is missing. The veneer on the top also has some cracks, and the desk shows general wear from “age and use.” Also for sale is a 32-piece engraved silverware set from Gad’s Hill Place. The set, which is also priced at $20,000, includes ten forks, ten dessert spoons, ten tea spoons and two salt spoons with a matching fiddle-leaf thread pattern. Each piece of cutlery also bears Dickens’ “C.D.” monogram, written in looping script. The set was likely produced in Sheffield, England, around 1860. Other items belonging to the novelist have appeared at auction in recent years. In 2024, one of his pocket watches sold for around $15,000 (£11,500), which was more than three times the estimated price, according to BBC News’ Stuart Maisner. In the same auction, which took place following the death of one of Dickens’ descendants, a desk set he had given to his daughter sold for roughly $4,500 (£3,400). Dickens used the 32-piece engraved silverware set at Gad’s Hill Place. RR Auction In 2015, the United Kingdom’s National Heritage Memorial Fund purchased the desk where Dickens wrote Great ExpectationsGuardian’s Martin Williams reported. Thanks to a grant, the desk and accompanying chair were saved for members of the public to enjoy. They are now on permanent display at the Charles ­Dickens Museum, located inside the author’s former home on Doughty Street in London. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the year that home was saved from demolition. To celebrate, the museum is staging a special exhibition featuring historic objects that shed light on the writer’s life and legacy. On view through June 29, the show includes items like original manuscripts, rare first editions and an 1843 painting of Dickens that went missing for more than a century. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.