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Ink stand: C.2058-1928

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Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Pottery: Unidentified Westerwald pottery

Entities

Categories

Description

Rectangular salt-glazed stoneware inkstand decorated with pierced patterns and five modelled figures playing musical instruments and drinking.

Grey stoneware, with incised, pierced, and applied stamped decoration, painted in blue (smalt) and salt-glazed. In the form of a rectangular pedestal resting on six knob feet with two circular openings in the top for inkwells (missing), two small holes to take pens, and, on the right a small cylinder for a taper, a high back, in front of which is a bench with small figures of four men and a woman sitting on it playing musical instruments. A bottle and a dish stood (now missing) on a small table on the bench between two figures, and a pigeon perches between two others. In front, at the bottom, there is a projecting tray for the pens. The sides and front are decorated with circles pierced with elliptical holes which create lozenge shapes inside the circles, and there are knurled knobs on all the left and right corners, and in the middle of the top and back. The flat reverse is decorated with three and a half pierced rosettes, stamped leaf motifs, and on either side at the top, two crowned lions with incised outlines.

Notes

History note: George Stoner, Stoner & Evans, London, from whom purchased for £45 on 14 November 1919 by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Measurements and weight

Depth: 14.2 cm
Height: 14.9 cm
Width: 20.3 cm

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

18th Century, Mid
Circa 1740 CE - 1770 CE

Note

The figures on this inkstand are strongly reminiscent of English salt-glazed stoneware pew group figures of men playing musical instruments, and women sitting on high-backed settles, but it seems unlikely that there could have been a connection between them.

School or Style

Rococo

Components of the work

Decoration composed of smalt ( smalt was produced by fusing cobalt with an alkali, usually potash, and sand, to produce a glassy mass which was ground up to a powder and mixed with water)
Surface composed of salt glaze
Figures And Knobs

Materials used in production

grey Stoneware

Techniques used in production

Salt-glazing

References and bibliographic entries

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.2058-1928
Primary reference Number: 76588
Old object number: 3830
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Friday 19 May 2023 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Ink stand" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/76588 Accessed: 2024-03-28 15:15:23

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/76588 |title=Ink stand |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-28 15:15:23|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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