The forerunner of today’s executives’ desks were the inkstands or encriers of yesterday and before. According to records they may have been made since Tudor times and the earliest existing silver example dates from 1630. Encriers or standishes, consist of trays or shallow boxes with compartments to house inkpots, pens and other writing materials.
They may be found with two or more inkpots, rare examples with up to six inkpots have been recorded. Recesses were often provided for pounce boxes, hand bells, taper sticks, quill pens, wafer boxes, desk seals, sealing wax and even lighting materials.
Inkstands could also have a small knife to sharpen the quill, a little pot for holding shot into which the pen could be thrust to clear congealed ink and a rack to hold quills or pens. The pounce box held the blotting material, which was usually fine sand which was sprinkled over the ink and gently blown or shaken off.
Encriers, standishes or inkstands call them what you will, were made in polished wood, sometimes with glass liners, but in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries all metals including silver and Sheffield plate were popular. By the end of the eighteenth century these metal inkstands contained glass bottles, often cut glass with silver markings, preventing the ink from staining the metal holder.
Inkpots, themselves, are collectable since many decorative forms were made and sold separately. They may be found in pressed, moulded and cut glass, with silver, bronze, pewter or brass mounts. Some were manufactured on heavy marble or metal bases for dual use as paperweights.
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