Inkwells from Europe and Britain could be quite exotic during the writing revolution. This group represents the diversity and beauty of systems developed during the 19th century. Included are Pump or Hydraulic Inkwells, unusual shapes, and fabulous workmanship in wood, glass, porcelain and metal.

Netherlands Dutch silver Etui or Necessaire containing quill pen, Porte crayon, stylus and other Metalpoint tools. The maker was Barend Enzering of Amsterdam. The date mark indicates that Enzering created this item in 1820. 

The Etui case is 3 1/4" tall, 1 1/4" wide, with total contents weighing 96.4 grams or 3.1 ozs Troy. Other punched hallmarks indicate silver content, duty discharge mark and Barend Enzering’s maker mark. The top displays a heraldic seal partially visible. Examples of Barend Enzering works are displayed at the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam.

​During the Middle-Ages communications of minor interest were written with a stylus on a small wax tablet and this set contains a stylus.  After the 16th century discovery in Cumberland, graphite was used for writing. Graphite pencils were set in a metal holder or Porte-Crayon such as found in this writing case. ​The use of quill pens began in Spain in the 6th century and metal holders similar to the example in this set began as early as the 17th century.

French Late 18th Century Drafting Tool Kit. The beautiful set is boxed in a Tortoise Inlaid, blue Silk lined, box with key. Present is a Baradelle protractor, Meurand pied du Roy or King's Foot, Baradelle fils Brass Mathematical Sector, and 2 engraved horn protractors.

House of Baradelle high quality Metaux [Metal] Iconography. Finely engraved as the workshop of Baradelle was reputed to produce.

Founded in 1847 by Charles Murat, jewelry production included porte crayon, porte plume, and porte mine writing instruments in gold and silver. Murat Paris remains a popular designer of jewelry and accessories.

As part of my collection are a porte crayon in silver with vermeil of spectacular Art Nouveau design, a porte mine (pencil) in classic Fleur de Lis, and a porte plume (pen) in Avant Garde gold and silver using the Cross of Lorraine.

The Baradelles were a distinguished family of mathematical instrument makers in Paris. Nicolas-Jacques Baradelle (1701-after 1772) was the senior member. He apprenticed with N. la Butte (in 1717), Jacques le Maire (also in 1717), and Nicolas Bion (from 1719 to 1725), and lived and worked at Bion's address on the Quai de l'Horloge in Paris. By 1752, he was operating down the street under the sign à l'Observatoire in homage to his godfather, Jacques Cassini, director of the Paris Observatory between 1712 and 1756. Baradelle also had a close connection at the Academie des Sciences, and employed members' data in some of his instruments. His grandsons included the instrument makers Nicolas-Alexandre Baradelle (ca. 1740-post 1791), Nicolas-Elois Baradelle (1749-1814), and Jean-Louis-Jacques Baradelle (1752-1794), all of whom were in the Founders' Company…

Weiss, Martin P. M. (2019). A. D. Morrison-Low; Sara J. Schechner; Paolo Brenni . How Scientific Instruments Have Changed Hands. xxxii + 239 pp., figs., tables, index. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2016. ISBN 9789004324930. Isis 110 (2):410-411.​

Nicolas Bion (1652-1723) rose gold Porte Crayon Combo, similar design to one portrayed in his Traité de la Construction et des Principaux Usages des Instrumens de Mathematique, Paris, 1709, with yellow gold highlights and intricate goldwork, Circa 1685-1722. Hallmarked with 7 unique punches which are undergoing analysis.

In Sotheby's book Drawing Instruments by Maya Hambly, the author mentions Early Instrument Makers Christoff Schissler (1530-1609),  Jacobus & Domenicus Lusuerg (1680-1710), Nicolas Bion (1652-1723), Micheal Butterfield (1635-1724), and Chapotot the Elder (1670-1686). Hambly also depicts a page exhibiting a similar mechanism to the Bion Porte Crayon (items C & D) in slide 9 (slide 10 in Stone’s English translation) as portrayed in Joseph Furttenbach’s Mechanischer Reissladen (Augsburg, 1644).

The French mathematical instrument makers of the period, including Bion, Maulevaut, Lordelle, Langlois, Le Maire, Butterfield, Canivet, Lennel  and Baradelle operated studios near the Quai de l'Horlage du Palais on the  Île de la Cité. A recent study of this group, published in Artefact in 2017 (La dynastie Langlois – Lordelle – Canivet – Lennel, « fabricateurs » d’instruments de mathématiques à Paris au xviiie siècle by Patrick Rocca and Françoise Launay), revealed that less than 1% of instruments were made of gold, and silver instruments made up 5% or less of inventories.

The depicted porte crayon is decorated with multiple gold bees. The history of use of the bee began in about the 5th Century with Childeric, a Salian-Frank leader who seized power in the 480's. Childeric's personal treasure hoard was discovered in 1653 in Tounai near the French border with Belgium.​ A study was written and published in 1655 depicting the over 300 stylized gold bees with garnet wings found in Childeric's tomb. 

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This type of French penner is a combination of perpetual calendar, inkwell, wafer storage, and storage area for quill cutter knife blades, scraper/eraser, and ivory pen with gold pen nib, all surmounted with a threaded receptacle for mounting the bladed tools. This type of penner is most often made of ebony and sometimes of ivory.

Joseph Bramah (1748-1814), was a British engineer/inventor who may be best known for his lock. He is known in the writing collectibles field for his nib clamp and quill nib production inventions. This silver combo was produced soon after Bramah invented his nib clamp mechanism and a pencil extension - retraction mechanism. John Jago, a period sought after silversmith produced this item. Many of the images below were obtained under microscopic examination. See Gerald Sattin Ltd., A Loan Collection of Writing Implements & Accessories in Silver & Gold, c. 1680-1880, page 13, no. 38 for the only other such pencil example known.

A Jean-Benoit Mallat penholder in 18k gold lattice and artistically sculpted waist finished with a dark tortoise shell handle. The pen is embellished with floral engraving leading to an 18th century style sliding button operated extension mechanism culminated in a threaded gold receptacle for the unalterable nib of gold. The once ruby-tipped gold patented nib is actuated by the retractable system.
Gross weight: 11.3 g.

Jean-Benoît Mallat was born in Angoulême in 1805. ​After six years of apprenticeship under a watchmaker, he moved to Paris. His skill as a precision mechanic interested the illusionist Robert Houdin, who entrusted him with the development and manufacture of the devices necessary for some of his illusions. Mallat accompanied him on a tour of England where he met the Mitchell brothers. John and William Mitchell were also consulted by Houdin because of their reputed engineering skills. This meeting likely influenced the trajectory of Mallat’s career.

In 1830, Mallat returned to Paris on establishing himself on rue Neuve Saint-François to practice his trade as a watchmaker. An inventor at heart, he devoted himself to research on writing instruments. In 1842, he filed a patent for the “Unalterable Writing Pen". Mallat found that gold gave the nib great flexibility, while a steel rib fixed under the nib maintained even firmness while constituting a reservoir for the ink. To remedy the wear of gold nib points, he inserted ruby chips on the underside of each tip. He later began to apply grains of iridium or osmium to nib tips. Gold was expensive and iridium even more so. The cost of his gold and silver penholders, coupled with the threaded, fixed gold nib resulted in only wealthy elites having accessibility to this product. This pen is scarce due to extremely low production.

Mr. Mallat decided to investigate manufacture of steel nibs. From 1842 to 1853, he filed a number of patents for improvements and the innovations were widely imitated. Many of the innovations related to structures to facilitate the retention of ink using ribs, slits, or folds. His products enabled authors to write up to two hundred words without having to refill the nib. The steel pen nib models under his brand, to the chagrin of French industrialists, were made in England under negotiated agreements, at Gillott and later at Perry and Leonardt, all of whom were inspired by his innovations in their own steel pen nib productions.

In 1864, he created one of the first commercially exploited reservoir penholders, commercialized as the SIPHOÏDE. This pen was constructed primarily of woods, with ink filling performed by a threaded wooden rod suction filling mechanism and ink flow regulation to the nib by a wood bolt.

 Jean-Benoît Mallat died in 1877, a father leaving a prosperous business.

French Goldsmiths working on the Ill

Joseph-Frédéric-Benoît Charrière (March 19, 1803 – April 28, 1876) was a Swiss-born French manufacturer of surgical instruments. He founded his company in 1820 and quickly grew to employ over 400 employees. Charriere exhibited products at expositions in Paris, London, and New York from 1834 to 1862, winning gold, silver, and Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur awards. 

He developed and improved a number of instruments, benefitting from the introduction of nickel silver, stainless steel, and rubber. This instrument is a combination Porte Crayon and Porte Mine (Pencil).

The Charriere medical instrument catalogue prices a Porte Crayon and depicts such within, translated as "H.Porte-pierre.- Le porte-pierre (fig.12) is an instrument intended to facilitate the application of silver azotate and to preserve moisture; it consists of a small [porte crayon] silver pencil holder or better platinum, fixed on a handle usually of ebony lined with a screw thread and a case, screwed on the handle, and into which the pencil holder enter In the thickness of the handle is another small case also screwed and can contain a spare pencil."

A pair of gold dip pens with shagreen wrapped wood shafts in their original fitted case, the silk marked: 'Jewellers, 35 Alfred Place West, Child & Child, Queen's Gate, Gold and Silversmiths', circa 1880, by Child and Child who were specialist art jewellers. The firm was patronised by artists from the Pre-Raphaelite circle and members of the Royal family including British Queen Victoria, Queen Mary of Scotland, and Alexandra, Empress of Russia.
Cite to: Pre-Raphaelite to Arts & Crafts Jewellery Charlotte Gere & Geoffrey C. Munn, 1996, p. 148 Literature

Hardpoint / Metalpoint was used longest in the Netherlands. Drawing tools were made by forming tin, copper, lead, silver or gold into a stylus or different metals were cut, beaten, or cast into various shapes and sizes.  Metalpoint drawings can suggest shading by adding fine hatching lines to introduce shading in a drawing. Early Metalpoint drawings on paper date from around 1400-1420 and seem to be linked to manuscript illuminators working for the Burgundian court ... ​The use of Metalpoint coincided with the practice of painting in the pale and exacting egg tempera medium, before the widespread use of oil paint. The use of Metalpoint was common in the late Middle Ages and in the early Renaissance.

​From around the beginning of the sixteenth century, Netherlandish artists such as Gerard David began to use Metalpoint for more spontaneous sketches. Metalpoint seemed to die out in the 1520s, but around 1579 it experienced a revival, particularly in the Northern Netherlands. The last major artist to use the technique in the Netherlands was Rembrandt, who briefly carried a silverpoint sketchbook on his trip to Friesland in 1633.

Mallat Siphoide Fountain Pen