an unidentified gentleman with a silver ‘Grecian’ pattern inkstand, manufactured in three sizes (11, 13 and 16 inches wide) by Edward Barnard & Sons of London (photo: Robert Cade, Ipswich, late 1860s)
Silver inkstands, at least in Britain, were considered fitting gifts for men in all stations from the late 17th Century for nearly 300 years. But surely few recipients of such useful, decorative and expensive objects could have been as graceless as John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) when in 1858 he heard that colleagues in the East India Company were about to present him with one after 35 years’ service. They had commissioned the architect Matthew Digby Wyatt for a special design and the scheme was near to completion by Elkington’s the silversmiths when Mill declared that ‘he hated all such demonstrations [because] they were never altogether genuine or spontaneous.’ This outburst shamed the committee into delivering the inkstand to the great man’s house in secret!
No such ill-mannered sentiments marred the presentation of an inkstand to the eminent architect J.B. Papworth (1775-1847), when in 1847 a group of his professional friends and pupils gathered to express their respect and esteem. They recalled not only his services to architecture but also his influence on the applied arts (he furnished patterns for, among others, the royal goldsmiths, Rundell, Bridge & Rundell) and as the first director of the Government Schools of Design.
Many lesser dignitaries, like the unknown gentleman in our photograph, received gifts of inscribed inkstands. In fact, in Victorian times the big manufacturing silversmiths produced special models appropriate to various professions, such as Elkington’s for churchmen and philanthropists where the ink pots flanked a figure of a shivering beggar.
an engraving of the inscribed silver inkstand, manufacturer unknown, presented to the architect John Buonarotti Papworth on Monday, 25 January 1847, at the house in Bolton Gardens, Russell Square, London, of Thomas Leverton Donaldson (1795-1885), a co-founder of the Royal Institute of British Architects (The Illustrated London News, London, 30 January 1847, pp. 75-6)
- Various inkstands are currently listed on myfamilysilver.com, as well as other interesting items from Edward Barnard & Sons, Elkington & Co and Rundell, Bridge & Rundell
John Culme, who for many years has been connected with Sotheby's Silver Department, is author of several books and articles, including The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths, 1838-1914, published in 1987, and co-author with Nicholas Rayner of The Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor. He is also a Liveryman of the Goldsmiths' Company, London.
