Inkstand
John Plimmer
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The inkstand has four vase-shaped containers supported in tripod frames that suggest, in miniature, the stands of antiquity that Europeans called "Atheniennes." Two of the containers have holes in the covers for pens and inks and a third has a pierced design on the cover for sand, which served to dry the ink. The fourth container probably held wafers—small readymade paste-disks for sealing letters. There is a deep slot on each of the long sides for pens and a tray to contain other equipment, such as spare quills and the pen knife that was used to recut quills when they split or frayed from use. A medley of decorative motifs combine for the ornament of what would be otherwise a plain rectangular low box with inkwells on its top. The feet are formed of bunched acanthus leaves and above them, on the diagonally cut corners, are lion masks with a suggestion of Egyptian pharaonic headdresses. The oval at the center of the tray which holds the ring drawer-pull encloses a classical rosette, while continuous bands of fruiting olive branches run round the top and bottom edges of the sides of the stand, and acanthus scrolls and husks frame the rosette at the center of the tray's front. The frames on the top consist of rings decorated with bay leaves and berries, with legs formed of goat's feet and forelegs topped by satyrs' masks. In contrast to these ornaments that are all in relief, the four containers are restful to the eye, with convex flutes around the body and plain bases and shoulders. The maker, John Plimmer, was listed as a "small worker" in a Parliamentary report for 1773. The inkstand was put together from sheet silver and elements in relief could have been obtained from another silversmith's shop acting as supplier to the trade. The most exacting to make were the four containers, but these would have been within the capacity of his workshop. Plimmer produced a necessary item of interior furnishing with a mixture of decorative motifs in a very acceptable style in early nineteenth-century London.
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.