Columnist John Katsilometes: Furniture of the rich and famous

John Katsilometes is the Sun assistant features editor. His column appears Mondays. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-2327.

You can buy a $2,500 fountain pen at Tolstoys.

I mean, theoretically.

You can also find a $135 brass inkwell and a set of stationery for $128. There are no paper clips for sale, but given Tolstoys' swanky price range they'd sell for $20 a pop. And they'd be made of brass or silver or something similarly indisposable.

Tolstoys General Manager Jim Mitchell, on hand during a slow morning at his store in the Canal Shoppes at the Venetian, explains his business' clientele.

"We have people who come in and are willing and able to spend $4,000," Mitchell says. "Then we have some of the John Deere-type people who come in from Wisconsin and have $200 to spend the whole time they're in Las Vegas. They don't stay long."

Silly cheeseheads.

The real reason for the visit to the store that specializes in "Instruments of Distinction" is standing stately in a far corner: the world's most expensive musical desk.

It's worth a million bucks. But it's not for sale.

"The Millennium Signature Desk" was built by the master craftsmen of Reuge Music, a renowned Swiss manufacturer, and custom wood detailer David Boucher of Australia. The desk is in the midst of a national tour. Someday, during a future national tour, the desk might even have an opening act. A $500,000 armoire, maybe

To describe this majestic piece of office furniture, Mitchell summons an English bloke named Brian Newman over to a roped-off display area.

I ask for Newman's title.

"I'm a buyer," he says. Mitchell interjects, "Yes, he's a buyer and he sort of runs the store."

So he's a buyer and store manager?

"We don't have store managers," Mitchell sternly says. "Brian is a buyer and an advisor."

Well!

Newman opens the desk, unveiling a large music box, each lever and cylinder made by hand. One drawer is filled with a dozen compartments of separate music boxes, which musically coincide with the signs of the zodiac. Another drawer is filled with six suede-lined stationery drawers. On top is a cabinet housing a silver-and-rhodium pen, a matching inkwell and blotter, and a tiny 1.8-carat diamond-encrusted singing bird made of 18k white gold.

Wood used in the desk's casing includes French burl walnut and a maple tree felled by a lighting strike in 1906 (chosen because it has a distinctive grain pattern). The art deco mirror is illuminated by a computer-controlled fiber optic lighting system. The project took more than 4,000 hours to finish.

I could write some very inspired post cards at this desk.

"It's a celebration of music, light and art," Newman says.

I walk around a bit more, checking out the gold letter openers and a 1928 Mickey Mouse limited edition pen that sells for $250 (a bargain because only 100 are still for sale and Mitchell owns them all).

And, most impressively, sitting near the entrance is an exact replica of the desk Leo Tolstoy used while writing "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina." This simple desk (made in Oklahoma) sells for $6,000.

Whether Tolstoy himself would pay such a price is doubtful. I left Tolstoys feeling a bit light-headed, knowing I'd be more comfortable with the $200 cheeseheads.

archive