What Is An Inkwell?

[wd7512]

AND, you are MUCH smarter than those who failed to ask the question, because you have an answer & they may remain without same; I always consider those who ask a question to be very smart people, to admit there are things they DON'T know & are willing to try to find out. Ask away!

 

thanks

[dogpoet]

I've clearly arrived in this thread far too late to be able to say: "An ink well is where they mine ink. They use drills to penetrate the earth down to the ink layers, and then tap and pump them out. Offshore ink wells have been banned since the great Baystate Blue fiasco of 2008 ravaged miles of the southwestern coast turning all of the wildlife it didn't melt a deep oceanic blue."

[PaulS]

Would agree partly with Astron - nouveau certainly had it's fair share of erotic femme fatales, but perhaps there's more aesthetic good taste with nouveau - whereas deco is a tad more vulgar/modern? However, I'm a big fan of both styles - from an artistic point of view.

 

Tamiya's red handled dip pen holder would have been luxury back then - austerity meant a lack of paint - and we had only undecorated wood, but yes, similar to those we used. The point being missed by those under 60 is that we oldies emerged skilled in cursive joined up writing, and that skill lasts a lifetime

 

quote .................... "it didn't melt a deep oceanic blue." perhaps we've overlooked the fact that the reason the seas are mostly blue, is because of the leaks from 'ink wells' under the ocean?

Edited June 11, 2017 by PaulS

[BillH]

I've clearly arrived in this thread far too late to be able to say: "An ink well is where they mine ink. They use drills to penetrate the earth down to the ink layers, and then tap and pump them out. Offshore ink wells have been banned since the great Baystate Blue fiasco of 2008 ravaged miles of the southwestern coast turning all of the wildlife it didn't melt a deep oceanic blue."

 

 

My dad used to tell me of the old Quink well gushers his dad saw as a boy

 

 

[ErrantSmudge]

 

so to me that just looks like an empty ink pot, is that just simply what that is or is there a difference?

 

 

In the case of the TWSBI inkwell, there is a difference. The inkwell actually has two caps. The lower one screws directly to the bottle portion; the upper one is threaded between the black and the colored part of the cap.

 

You can unscrew the lower cap and fill any fountain pen from the bottle of the inkwell. There's an ink-catcher embedded inside the glass area to allow you to fill the pen even when the ink level in the bottle is low; invert the bottle and the ink collects in the catcher.

 

Certain TWSBI pens (The Diamond and Mini lines) can fill directly from the upper cap. There's a special nozzle that fits the ink chambers of those pens. (Here's a link to the website I stole this photo from).

 

 

I have also heard some international converters can fill from the nozzle, but I don't have one of these inkwells so I can't say for sure. (A TWSBI inkwell is on my wishlist).

Edited June 11, 2017 by ErrantSmudge

[wd7512]

 

 

In the case of the TWSBI inkwell, there is a difference. The inkwell actually has two caps. The lower one screws directly to the bottle portion; the upper one is threaded between the black and the colored part of the cap.

 

You can unscrew the lower cap and fill any fountain pen from the bottle of the inkwell. There's an ink-catcher embedded inside the glass area to allow you to fill the pen even when the ink level in the bottle is low; invert the bottle and the ink collects in the catcher.

 

Certain TWSBI pens (The Diamond and Mini lines) can fill directly from the upper cap. There's a special nozzle that fits the ink chambers of those pens. (Here's a link to the website I stole this photo from).

 

 

I have also heard some international converters can fill from the nozzle, but I don't have one of these inkwells so I can't say for sure. (A TWSBI inkwell is on my wishlist).

 

wow that looks really cool, I want one now haha

[Astronymus]

However, I'm a big fan of both styles - from an artistic point of view.

Definitly. I think those two and the space age style are the three most beautiful. I'm not so much a fan of what came later.

Bauhaus is attractive by it FFF philosophy. Yet sometime a bit dull.

[tinta]

A simple question of what is an inkwell has turned out to be a rather interesting thread.

[sidthecat]

I was going to say that an inkwell is another opportunity for me to waste my hard-earned money, but if you have an interest in using dip pens, you need one. I have a little Japanese one in the shape of a frog wearing a loose robe. He carried a ballpoint until recently, but now he's full of ink.

[tinta]

I was going to say that an inkwell is another opportunity for me to waste my hard-earned money, but if you have an interest in using dip pens, you need one. I have a little Japanese one in the shape of a frog wearing a loose robe. He carried a ballpoint until recently, but now he's full of ink.

Picture please. if possible.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Paul, English has 1,500,000 words, German 750,000 the French only 250,000 and the reason the Italians talk with their hands so much is they have 125,000 words. The Chinese less. Remembered from back before the BC...back when computers needed an AC room, and cost a million dollars.

 

Histerismus....so that's how it's spelt. I have only heard the word on various German antique shows.

I have a few of those inkwells too, but when my computer died....so did half of my inkwell pictures.

 

Tid bit, Noah Webster tried to make an American English in by leaving off the silent b in, Thumb, Comb and so on or tung which is a lot better than the standard tongue . The 1806 dictionary didn't sell in the educated were snobs. He put the B back in.

 

After learning 28 languages in 26 years, published his new dictionary just before he died.

 

Paul from 1840 until the Oxford unabridged came out in 1895 or so.....Websters was the most sold dictionary in England.

The power of nickle knowledge....been hanging around my brain for over 40 years....and finally gets to be used. Do admit just picked up the amount of languages he needed to write his dictionary was astounding.

 

Wiki is wonderful....learned a lot more about Noah, that I ever imagined. To be so hated by the Federalists meant he had a sharp pen. One is known by one's enemies....so in his time he was much more known than now.

Edited June 11, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[Astronymus]

It's "Historismus".

And it has actually two meanings depending on the context.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicism_(art)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historism

[dcwaites]

Paul, English has 1,500,000 words, German 750,000 the French only 250,000 and the reason the Italians talk with their hands so much is they have 125,000 words. The Chinese less. Remembered from back before the BC...back when computers needed an AC room, and cost a million dollars.

 

...

 

Yes, but English has so few of its own words. Many of its words, like beef, are borrowed from the French boeuf.

 

English is really the most used Creole in the world. It has words from Scandinavian, French, Latin, German, Hindi, to mention only a few. Its grammar is a mixture of Old English, German and Latin.

 

It's no wonder that native English speakers have problems with it, not to mention those who are coming to it as their second, third or even seventh language.

[Water Ouzel]

I started elementary school in 1956, in southern California, and our desks had a place for an inkwell, centered at the top of the desk.

 

We never used it for that purpose, but did find it to be the perfect place to store a paste pot. The paste smelled a lot like root beer, but did not taste like it. We were disappointed.

 

While my father used a fountain pen, most likely a Parker 51, I never used a fountain pen until I got a Sheaffer dollar pen in high school.

[fabri00]

This was in any Italian school till about 1970:

[PaulS]

big apologies for the misspelling of Historismus - seems I can't now even copy correctly My reference source was Valerio Terraroli's book 'Skira Dictionary of Modern Decorative Arts 1851 - 1942' .......... quite why the end date of 1942 I'm not sure, although just possible this may coincide with Italy's entry into the European conflict, but don't hold me to that please.

My copy is an English language translation from the original Italian - and there is some loss of smoothness of meaning - but nonetheless a good book which as you'd expect does devote a lot of space to those main movements - nouveau and deco - and their variations depending on which nationality.

I suppose when a nation has been ravaged, pillaged, overrun, subdued - by Romans, Vikings, Saxons, French etc., we're bound to end up a bit confused as to who we are, and which words we should use - but a lot of snobbery there too .......... it's seen as very fashionable to use foreign words - shows breeding don't ya know.

 

Anyway, excessive digression - so back please to ink wells.

Edited June 12, 2017 by PaulS

[Bo Bo Olson]

We in English have no false pride, like the French when it comes to stealing a good word. Berserker and to run amuck...both are sword welding feel no pain crazy men....one bigger than the other; with other small differences.

The French are still fighting Hamburger.

 

It don't matter where the words come from, only that they have been used. German too has to have some Latin words.

German Latin, is closer to the original (or was) than Italian which is corrupted by Italian.

 

Historismus....as long as we are close enough for Government work ...it's ok. Tommy Jefferson could spell ....with 'Alternative Spellings'.....near as good as I can. Thank god for spell check.

 

Webster had fixed at least the spelling in the English language, but no one who could afford to by his first dictionary, wanted a better English.

10% irregularities is the mark of a cobbled together language................Some Abbot that could read (back when Celt/Romans who had spoken and written Latin were extinct in England) in about the 5th century was alone responsible for the spelling Island, when everyone around him, and everyone since have always said Iland. No one says iSland.

 

As soon as the second word in English falls the listener has an idea where it is going, so can gather breath to say no.

In German one is never sure until the last word falls, so one never has time to take a breath to say no......the reasons the Germans are the best order takers in the world.......my own thought on that, in I find German a clunky language. It takes a Wolfgang von Goethe to make German a smooth language.

PS...I like Robert Frost for English Poetry......IMO some of his, is the best by far. Tripping from the tongue like a babbling brook, smooth as the sometimes ten years he worked on some of his better poems.

Art is something I can not do.........splotches on canvas or cubist I can. Poetry which has form or it is not poetry, is the hardest of work.......free verse is something I or anyone can do, if one wants to waste time on it. How many free verse 'poetry' is remembered and quoted, like a Frost or Tennyson poem?

When Rap started, I was happy, the next Shakespeare or great poetry was just around the corner. I was wrong. I got to stop making a habit of that.

Jethro Tull does some nice poetry. The singing is a tad different but are slightly different mediums.

[sidthecat]

Somebody wished to see my froggie inkwell - here we go:

[Barkingpig]

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE,

 

that Froggy inkwell! It is wonderful & the eyes MAKE it, a VERY wise froggy. I have a lion or tiger head, that is hinged so that it can be lifted to expose the inkwell inside; the teeth in the opened mouth allow a pen to rest between. I have seen a lot of interesting animalistic inkwells, but none as cool as your Froggy. Thank you for sharing.

[PaulS]

well, I think that's a slight to all the wonderful toads in the world but seriously I agree - great piece of kit.