Posted 13 years ago
MikeThomas
(1 item)
My grandfather's travelling six-colour inkwell set. He obviously used the Yellow and Green a lot as the bottle tops are a bit chipped but otherwise they are in great working order! I've never seen another such set - plenty of individual bottles - but these are obviously made as a set as they are manufacturer-inscribed with the colours.
I guess these are WW1 era as he was born in 1888 and travelled with WHite Star as accountant (shipping clerk?) on the Olympic (sister ship to the Titanic).
It would be great if anyone has any further information on when and how many of these were made.
A further thought - it could be that (say) Black and Blue bottles have been moved to the Green and Yellow holders if they had been well-used and chipped...perhaps the Green and Yellow were not used at all!
Hi, Mike! I am now doing the catalogue for one collector who ownes one of such inkwells. And it is hard to find some info about it so far. You can take a look here:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/40183-de-la-rue-ransomes-patent-inkwell
This is fantastic MikeThomas. I would build a cabinet around this, just to show it off. Seriously, WOW.
Happy Holidays!
Hi, this thread looks a bit old, but I was going through my father's possessions and he claimed that his grandfather put together this inkpot around the turn of the century. The "Ransome's" would be "Ransome's and Jeffries", the firm for which he worked in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. As a labourer, I doubt he patented it or benefited from the patent. No idea how many were made - from what I can see on eBay, they were sold through Army & Navy supply shops.