Featured Artifacts: Inkwells

The post of October 29 featured one item which is becoming increasingly uncommon. Another object that would have been found in the homes of most educated people until the 1950s is the inkwell.

For centuries, people had to mix their own ink using a number of different recipes using either soot or a composite of ferrous sulfate and oak gall. A concave stone would allow for grinding and mixing. A quill or other slender tool would be dipped in the ink and then applied to papyrus, vellum, or paper. To save the ink, scribes began to use lidded containers-- the first inkwells.

As literacy spread and more people need pen and ink for writing, the inkwells became increasingly elaborate objects to decorate the desk in one's home.  Different materials and elaborate patterns created a wide variety which has attracted collectors today.

This inkwell from Venice circa 1910 is one of several in the Benton County Historical Museum's collection of inkwells made from glass.  Most are of clear glass but I like blue.

Brass was another common material, as in this art deco inkwell.

 

The most elaborate are of silver and glass.

Others were made of stone, ceramics, or porcelain.  Some shaped as animals; others incorporated a tray, a place for one or more pens, or a calendar.

Camel-shaped inkwell

The quills that writers originally used were replaced by fountain pens in the 1800s.  Filling them was difficult until the invention of the self-filling pen.  These featured a lever which the user raised to create a vacuum which sucked the ink up into the reservoir.

Inkwells began to disappear with the advent of fountain pens that used pre-filled ink cartridges and then, beginning in the 1960s, with the mass production of ball-point pens. Fountain pens are still around and used by artists and calligraphers or in ceremonial signings.

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon