I want an ink well and stand for christmas and the only place I can find them is ebay. I see them in junk shops around my town but they are always broken or missing piece. But whenever I bid on them on ebay I lose because people bid them up so ridicoulsy high!! I don't know where I'm going to find one. Where else can I find them. If I don't find one my mum will get me shoes or something stupid for christmas.

What about the inkwells on this page? Two of them seem pretty reasonably priced (under $50)...

Inkwells

Thank you. I didn't know there were any on this page.

try pendemonium, pendemonium.com they have a fair selection of inkwells.
I am just a satisfied customer no affiliation other than that.

Don't give up! I've gotten some nice but inexpensive inkwells on ebay (from $10-$35). Can you show us pictures (links to ebay) of the styles you like?

Yeah, until everyone starts bidding on them then get up to $70- 100. I guess I'll have to keep looking. If you rely on statistics and I keep bidding on them eventually I'll win one of them.

Hi there

I too have bid on several old style ink well's on the bay and have always lost out!

Most of the people who do win them are antique dealers who sell them on in stores for profit I beleive!

I'm still hopefull of finding one I like.

Kind regards
NIGEL

May I suggest a seriously inexpensive option. Purchase a bottle of Caran d'Ache ink, any colour that takes your fancy. You will be amazed at the bottle. A very substantial base and tasteful elegant shape. The bottle only holds 30ml of ink so it should not be too long before it is empty.
Call me mean, actually I prefer parsimonious, but this is a very good substitute for an expensive inkwell.
Then you can suggest to your mother that perhaps a pen would be a better christmas pressie!

I agree. The Caran D'Ache bottles are very attractive. Not sure I like the ink that much, but the bottles display very well. The down side is that they're rather shallow. In any event, I plan to keep the bottles to refill with my favorite inks, and use them with dipping pens.

I'd suggest taking a look at the eBay store of a seller named Naragansett. That store has quite a few inkwells for $60.00 and less. An additional plus (as far as I'm concerned) is that many, if not most, of that seller's inkwells have screw on tops. Seems to me that the flip top lids would allow evaporation.

I have bought from Naragansett several times and he's a great seller!!!

You might also find these ink bottles interesting. A little pricey, but they do look nice.

You could look Here or here, or here, or here. As you may guess, I have done a bit of research on inkwells and desk accessories, but, like my PAS (pen acquisition syndrome) my DAAS (desk accessory acquisition syndrome) has been "cured" by SWMBO and a large property tax bill.

I have the El Casco Ink Pot and the Jac Zagoory 50ml Spectrum.

The El Casco can't seal airtight, so the ink will evaporate. The Spectrum is impressive and is airtight, but DO NOT fill it too close to the gold band. I did and the ink leaked out around the gold band and I had a mess to clean up.

bt

Thank you guys. But I'm not really looking for ink bottles I have a few from the 1880's that I got for nothing from my grandpa seeing as his house was build on the edge of an old dump. Nor am I looking for those student desk ink wells.

I just want to point again to this affordable and VERY elegant looking silver/gold inkwells, in case you missed my photo. I love their smaller compartment so I don't tie up a lot of ink in it, but plenty deep to fill any pen I have. I bought 3 of each...for me and for gifts. I also put some of the flexible, clear silicone caulking that comes in the smaller tubes, just wiped a thin layer around the top outer edge. You don't see it when it dries, but it does a darn good job at giving a nice seal when lid is closed.

Such a pity.

You know now that I think of it, I wish I'd gotten more into fountain pens when I was younger. There were two MARVELLOUS antique shops just down the road from my house and I went there every single week to look around. Other kids my age raided candy-shops and comic-book stores and the local BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO shop. I raided antique shops.

Unfortunately, one closed down, and the other had a firetruck crash through it's front windows, so they both moved.

Now I have no idea where I'd get a nice inkwell, and I'm really beginning to think that one would be nice.

I lost another auction tonight and the thing that burns me is I would've won it if it weren't for my tempremental dial up internet that decides to freeze up at the most inconveint times.

Bid your real limit the first time instead of at the last minute -- then if you lose it at the end at least it really was too expensive... (Sorry, I know "shoulda done it this way" isn't much consolation when you lost one you wanted - but it is one way to deal with unreliable connectivity.)

Actually, there is a pretty strong theoretical argument for not bidding early, and it mostly deals with people being irrational. Roughly, if everyone were to bid their maximum bid at the first and then never update it, then the strategy suggested would work fine. Everyone makes a bid for it, and whomever had the highest bid wins -- clean and simple.

However, since this is an ongoing auction, such a strategy ignores the impact of the information available in the 'current bid' and 'bid history' on the web page. Thus, the 'maximum' someone would pay is actually quite dynamic based on the actions of the other players (bidders). Someone sees they have been outbid, and for whatever reason (competitive instinct, re-evaluation of the item, etc.) the maximum value has increased -- and so will the bids until the price is raised sufficiently high to eliminate all other bidders.

So, what actually goes on is favorable for the seller but awful for bidders. To approximate the earlier scheme where everyone has a static maximum bid, the best strategy is to have everyone wait until just before the end of the auction to place their maximum bid. That way the person with the largest initial bid (ignoring things like competitive nature, etc.) will win the item without over-inflating its value.

In short, you should wait until the last 30 second or so and then place your bid for the maximum you are willing to pay -- this ensures that you don't motivate others to increase their bids out of competitiveness.

P.S. There are services out there that will perform so-called 'sniping' on your behalf for a small fee. If you are handy with computer scripts, it is a fairly easy task to write a script to do this, as well.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting someone who makes inkwells and is a really wonderful fellow. I am sure he would work with us if we wanted to have an inkwell made for just the FPN group. Is anyone interested?

Ohhh...I most certainly would be. A nice (but affordable) inkwell is on my Christmas list.

I won an inkwell tonight!!!!

Congrats! Any pix of it? I always get happy when I win an EBay that I want. Have to agree with that final 30 sec strategy.

A few years ago, I got a nice inkwell from the Victorian Trading Company. It is ornate metal that looks like patina on brass (no idea what the metal really is: probably spelter). This inkwell is for use with dip pens: it has a ceramic insert that holds perhaps 3 cc of ink. You fill it with an eyedropper when you are ready to write. The shallow insert keeps you from getting ink on the nib holder. The lid is not air-tight, so when you are finished writing, you pour the remaining ink back into the bottle. It would be mostly useless for fountain pens, but if you are into dippers, it is a really nice unit. Relatively inexpensive, too.

Paddler

Edited a typo.

Here's one pic:

That's lovely LedZepGirl. Will you use if for dip pens, fps or both?

Mostly for Fps. I don't have any dip pens any more.

Thank you.

I just bought a heavy antique glass inkwell. Naturally the lid is missing as they always are. But I only paid .50 for it. So I'll enjoy it as it is.

I have about 20 dip pen handles and perhaps 600 to 700 antique nibs that I use for sketching. So the inkwell is primarily for that.
I also have a MB FP which has developed a leak. Can't decide whether to spend the money to repair it or just dip it.

I thought that I should post in this topic to say that I finally have my very-own inkwell! It's a nice glass thing, good and heavy, to prevent tipping. It's got a nice silver (or steel, I can't tell which) flip-lid. It's been cleaned thoroughly and is now full of black fountain-pen ink.

I've been using it daily with my new calligraphy dip-pen to write my diary-entries. I've been using it so much it needs to be refilled every few days!

LedZepGirl,
I have you to blame - I just bid and won an inkwell on Ebay.

I find that my inkwell ink evaporates regularly so I add water to it besides fresh ink.

Interesting tip, jbb. Thanks.