Inkwells and Inkstands on the Web

An inkstand is not the same object as an inkwell, and the distinction is the reason a site like this existed. The well is the vessel that holds the ink; the stand is the whole desk furnishing that carries it — often with a pen tray, a sander or blotter, a taper stick for sealing wax, and sometimes a bell — made in glass, ceramic, brass, silver or wood and produced in enormous variety through the centuries when every desk needed one. Collectors therefore trade information more than objects, because attribution rests on form, on the fittings and on the maker's marks under the base.

This site was built as an exchange for exactly that: examples photographed and described so that owners could identify what they had, with a stated policy that nothing shown was for sale. It also carries the marks of the web of its time — frames, a navigation window that had to be closed on leaving, a requirement for a scripting-capable browser, and a note of the date of the last additions.

The page is kept as it was published on this domain. Its contacts and update notices are historical; what remains useful is the vocabulary of the subject and the discipline of describing a piece before valuing it.