Penner
The intaglio seal at the end of the cap in engraved in reverse, 'My contant care is thy welfare'. Penners (pen cases with attached ink bottles) have been described as the forerunner of the travelling inkwell. Several are known from the late seventeenth century, but they evidently existed at an earlier date. There is a fine example in the Museum of London, dated 1654 and an unknown artist depicts one in a posthumous portrait of Charles I, c. 1650. The object became redundant in the eighteenth century following the adoption of the fountain pen, invented in Paris in the middle of the previous century.
Information derived from T. Schroder, British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean (2009)
Details
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Title
Penner
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Associated place
United Kingdom (place of creation)London (probable) (probable place of creation) -
Date
c. 1690
17th century (1601 - 1700) -
Material and technique
silver plus leather case
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Object type
-
Dimensions
15 cm (length)
61 g (weight) -
No. of items
1
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Credit line
Presented by Bernard Ashmole, 1925.
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Museum location
Museum department
Western Art
Accession no.
WA1949.97
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Further reading
Schroder, Timothy, British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 2009), 235
Reference URL
