Bram Stoker's restored 'Dracula' desk up for auction

In this undated publicity photograph released to Reuters October 31, 2012, the desk where Bram Stoker wrote his famed 1897 book "Dracula" is pictured.[Photo/Agencies]

The desk where Bram Stoker wrote his famed 1897 book "Dracula" is going up for auction next month after having been restored and turned into a work of art, auction company Profiles in History said on Wednesday.

The desk, which will be auctioned off by the California company on December 15 and 16, has had a long history, which, over the past century, has left it battered, with missing drawers and legs sawn short.

The Irish-born Stoker, who died in 1912, initially gave the desk to his friend J.S.R. Phillips. The current owner commissioned British-based furniture maker and designer Mark Brazier-Jones to preserve the desk, but also make it a stand-alone art piece, the auction house said.

Brazier-Jones said in a statement that he wanted to preserve the desk's scars and textures, but also pay homage to the man who introduced the vampire Count Dracula to today's pop culture.

His improvements include embroidered imagery "appropriate to the great man's inspirations and imagining," including bats, a savage hound and scrolling rose thorns and buds. Brazier-Jones also lined with leather two secret compartments which will only be revealed to the new owner of the desk.

The company expects the desk, along with a matching candelabra designed and crafted by Brazier-Jones, to sell for somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000.