Japanese Pen Tray

[sandy101]

I found this Japanese (?) pen tray on e-bay. It's made of copper and looks rather nice.

 

My Izmo is posing for the picture.

[sharonspens]

I found this Japanese (?) pen tray on e-bay. It's made of copper and looks rather nice.

 

My Izmo is posing for the picture.

Nice!

[zaddick]

What makes you think it is a pen tray by design or are you just saying you bought it to use as a pen tray? Just curious.

[sandy101]

The description said - Japanese pen tray -so the previous owner clearly used it as such.

 

Apart from the Japanese/Chinese decoration - it doesn't look all that different in shape from many other Victorian pen trays I've seen - such as this one

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/William-Tonks-and-Sons-Brass-Pen-Tray-Birmingham-1884/153924830577?hash=item23d6a28571:g:zP4AAOSwdTRetln0

 

The copper is rather soft - and will scratch easily so I don't think it was made to hold any heavy metal items such as keys or coins, and there's a couple of ink/paint stains (from a brush?) on it.

 

There's no maker's mark on it (at least none that I can see) and some of the copper is starting to oxidise.

[zaddick]

Thank you for sharing the information. I hope it brings you many years of usefulness.