Inkstand

This inkstand, made in the late 1800s, reproduces an earlier style, developed in the mid-1700s, of porcelain plaques used to decorate furniture and small furnishings. Inkstands held supplies needed for writing, like an inkwell to hold the ink, sand for blotting, and a sponge for cleaning the pen nib. They had gone out of fashion by the mid-1800s, as writing technology improved and the need for a separate ink container disappeared. Knowing this inkstand was created after the form ceased to be useful, and 100 years after the style developed, tells that this form and style remained fashionable for a long time.

A printed label attached to the bottom indicates that this piece belonged to the Russian imperial collection and came from the Palace of Pavlovsk, near Saint Petersburg. Russian nobility admired the styles of France throughout the 1700s, when this form of inkstand originally grew in appeal. This later version of that inkstand shows that the taste for French art in Russia endured for over a hundred years.