A GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT INK-POT
Lot 543

A GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT INK-POT

MARK OF JOHN AND ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS, LONDON, 1824

Closed9 December 2011

Price Realised

GBP 6,000

More Information

How to sell

A GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT INK-POT
MARK OF JOHN AND ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS, LONDON, 1824
Cylindrical and on rim foot, the screw-off cover with Royal crown and cushion finial, the body with cone-shaped ink reservoir, finely engine-turned overall, with clear glass liner and cork plunger, marked on side and cover
6¼in. (16cm.) high

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 19 November 2002, lot 74.

Specialist note

This ingenious inkpot works by holding the ink under pressure in the thick glass liner of the cylindrical silver-gilt pot. When ink is required it is forced out of the reservoir by turning the Royal crown finial clockwise. This lowers the cork plunger which drives the ink out of the container into the conical vessel on the side. The pen-nib is dipped into the container and replenished with ink. A similar inkpot of 1825 is illustrated in M. Findlay, Western Writing Implements in the Age of the Quill Pen, Carlisle, 1990, p. 162, pl. 254.