writing paper and envelopes 1940s50s
holiday mail 1940s50s
economy mail 1940s50s
fountainpens postage stamps
1900s-50s postage rates 1930-40s postal collections 1940s-50s postal deliveries 1900s-50s bureaus portable writing desks contents of writing desks 1930s50s
The bureau: a piece of furniture, a storage unit and a desk
The purpose of the bureau
Because there was so much letter-writing while I was growing up in 1940s and 1950s Britain, every home had somewhere to store their stationery, important documents, letters and postcards received from friends and family. Older people still used the old portable desks, but younger households turned to a more modern solution - modern that is for the 1940s and 1950s. It was the bureau.
How a bureau doubled as a desk
The bureau was a largish piece of furniture with a slanting lid which folded down to make a flat writing surface. This was at a height suitable for writing when a chair was drawn up under it.
A closed bureau. Note its sloping lid that opened as a flat writing surface. Photographed in Dinefwr Park House.
An open bureau - showing the writing surface and storage compartments. Photographed in Milestones Museum, Basingstoke.
The bureau as a storage unit
Inside the sloping lid were compartments for filing papers and storing odds and ends like ink, pens (dipping pens and fountain pens) and paper clips.
The bottom half of the bureau was cupboards, bookshelves or drawers. My parents' bureau had shelves on which they stored a set of inherited encyclopaedia.
Bureaus like all furniture at the time were made of dark wood.
It was a sign of the times that bureaus belonged to the men of the house, although I am sure there must have been exceptions.
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sources: early 20th century material
sources: ww2 home front and other material
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