Made for Penelope Home, this delicate blend of French rococo and chinoiserie style writing table was conveniently compact and light. It could be carried easily about a room and used in comfortably bright or warm spots.

It would have been used to compose letters to Penelope’s friends and family. Sadly, these do not survive in the archives and the few insights into her life are mainly through her husband’s correspondence. Penelope probably grew up in the Caribbean and married Ninian before 1770. The couple travelled back and forth to Scotland in between living in Grenada enslaving hundreds of African people on their estates.

This piece was conserved in 2018 with funding from Museums Galleries Scotland.