Description:
Painted wooden, cylindrical inkstand with a flared rim, tapered waist, and wider base, which was made by S. Silliman & Co. Samuel Silliman (1786-1874) was a joiner in Chester, Middlesex County, Connecticut, who established a factory in 1831 where lamp brackets, mallets, rulers, spool stands, sand boxes, and inkwells were made. After taking on partners, the business was named S. Silliman & Co. in 1832. The underside of the stand has been covered with a yellowish, woven wool, and has a blue, printed paper label affixed to the wool: "PATENT/ S. SILLIMAN & CO. / SOLE/ PROPRIETORS / AND / MANUFACTURERS / Chester, Conn." Silliman & Co. made a large variety of inkstands, most with glass wells surrounded by an air chamber to prevent ink from freezing. According to period advertisements, this style of inkstand, called the “Counting-House Academic Two Well Inkstand,” sold for 0.33 cents. The top has an inset maple lid with six small round holes for pens and two round glass inkwells or inserts for ink, which appear to be held in place by plaster. The body of the stand is decorated with stains and reddish-brown paints to look like figured wood, perhaps rosewood, and stenciled gilt floral sprays, and three incised lines. Letter writing became an established art in the 18th century, one that required particular furniture and equipment. The quill pen (from "penna," Latin for feather) was first used about the 5th century; quills cut from the wing feathers of geese, swans, peacocks, crows, and turkeys were widely used until the 19th century. The point of the quill was cut to the shape of a modern nib with an upward cut to facilitate the flow of ink. The quill’s tip soon lost its sharpness and had to be recut with a pen knife or quill cutter; how the quill was cut depended on the style of writing intended. During the 18th century, ink was commonly made from gall nuts and iron salt, diluted hydrochloric acid, and tinted with a black or blue dye. The pigment was fixed on absorbent writing paper with sand or pounce, the fine powder of gum sandarac, which also prepared the surface of the paper for writing. In the late 18th century, advances in paper technology such as nonabsorbant, highly glazed writing papers, diminished the need for sand or pounce to fix the ink on the page, and few examples are encountered after about 1820. An essential component of all desks and writing sets, the inkwell needed fit on the stand, desk or writing surface, and be sturdy enough to withstand occasional jolts and jostles administered by the writer. The traditional shape of the inkwell was circular, with a fairly shallow indentation into which ink could be poured. If the inkwell was too deep, quill pens would get too saturated with ink to function properly; quill pens were cleaned with lead shot, contained in one of the inkstand’s pots. In the 18th century, instruction in writing, as opposed to reading, began much later at around the age of nine or ten. The postponement of penmanship was a direct consequence of using quills as the writing instrument; it was thought that children’s hand skills (manual dexterity) needed to be developed enough to cut the quill with a knife and convey ink to paper. Quill pens were eventually replaced by steel pen-nibs, a model of which was patented in 1831 by Birmingham button maker Joseph Gillott (1799-1872). In the mid 19th century, inkstands with quill holes began to be replaced by those with pen racks. Letters were folded on themselves and secured with a lump of sealing wax or gummed wafers, prior to the invention of envelopes with a gummed flap.
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