Victorian-Style Brass Double Inkwell ✒️ Ornate Cast Inkstand & Writing Standish

Size: 9 1/2 x 6 inches

✒️ A serious inkstand for a serious desk

Pick this one up and it surprises you — over 3 lbs of solid cast brass packed into a piece that's only 9 1/2 by 6 inches. Somebody wanted a double inkstand that looked and felt important, and that's what they got: a rectangular tray dressed head to toe in relief ornament, with two domed lids standing guard over a pair of round ink wells. It's a Victorian-style piece through and through — heavy, formal, and built to sit at the center of a desk and be noticed.

What it is

The base is a flat brass tray with a beaded outer rim and a scrolling floral border — vines, leaves and small rosettes in low relief. A rosette boss sits at each of the four corners, and the design steps up to a raised center panel carrying its own floral pattern. Set into that panel, side by side, are the two round wells, each under its own hinged, domed lid cast as a rosette of radiating petals wrapped in a twisted-rope border, with a small round knob at the center to lift it by. A narrow strip between the two wells, carved with its own little flower sprigs, keeps them visually separate even though they share one base.

Open a lid and you're looking into a plain brass collar — there's no glass or pottery liner inside, just the bare well. Turn the whole thing over and the underside tells a different story: hollow and rough-cast, unfinished brass with real green verdigris built up in the low spots, the front's pattern showing through as a ghost image in reverse. There is no maker's mark, no date and no country stamped anywhere on it — not on the front, not on the back, not inside either well.

How old is it?

It's old, and you can see it. The high points of the relief are worn bright from handling, and the verdigris built up across the underside took a long time to get there. With nothing stamped on it to name a maker or a place, the style tells the story: ornate cast-brass double inkstands like this were made in England, Germany and the United States from the late Victorian years into the early 1900s, and the look has been copied ever since. Something this heavy and this ornate was never a giveaway. It was a statement piece, bought for a desk where somebody wanted visitors to notice it, back when every serious letter started with a dip pen.

🖋️ Why two wells

A dip pen only holds a few words of ink at a time, so a working desk kept its well open all day, and it was common to keep two of them — commonly black ink in one and red in the other, red being the bookkeeper's color for figures and corrections. The hinged lids kept dust and evaporation off the ink between dips, which is exactly why this stand has two of them instead of one open dish.

By the early 1900s the fountain pen and then the typewriter changed how a working desk operated, and heavy double inkstands like this one were eased off the blotter and onto a shelf as keepsakes rather than daily tools.

🌿 Condition

Both lids are present and both hinges still work. They don't sit at quite the same angle, though — one lid swings all the way back and lies nearly flat, while the other stops short and stands upright, the way both were probably meant to. There are a few very minor spots of corrosion, and neither well still has its glass or pottery liner — you're getting the brass shell as it stands today, aged and unpolished: bright gold on the high points, darker in the recesses, verdigris across the back and in the crevices. Nothing here is fragile; it's simply a piece that's been used and has earned its patina honestly.

Good for

This is a piece for somebody who wants real weight and presence on a desk — a collector of Victorian-style brass, a fan of ornate metalwork, or anyone who likes the idea of a double inkwell where a laptop usually lives. Set small glass pots into the wells and it goes back to work as an inkstand; leave it as it is and it makes a striking catchall for paperclips, rings or stamps.

Questions People Ask

How old is it, and who made it? Nobody signed it, so the style and the wear do the talking: a Victorian-style inkstand with real age on it.

Does it come with ink pots, and can I use it for ink today? No liners come with it — the wells are open brass collars — so ink today would need small glass pots set inside them. Plenty of people just use it as a desk ornament, or keep clips, stamps or rings under the lids.