Bulldog Inkstand

This desk accessory features a cast bronze head of a Bulldog mounted centrally onto an integral circular pen tray.

Description

• Subject: Features a cropped-ear Bulldog head with signature facial folds, drooping jowls, and a detailed buckled leather-style collar around the neck base.
• Eyes: Set with dark red cabochon glass eyes.
• Mechanism & Interior: The hinged top half of the head opens backward via a pinned hinge to access the clear glass insert.
• Base: Built on a shallow, dish-shaped brass/bronze round tray designed to hold pens, clips, or small desk accoutrements.

Origin & Attribution

• Where it was made: Most likely manufactured in France or England. European metalworks (particularly French foundries during the late 19th-century caniche and bulldog craze, as well as English brass founders in Birmingham) produced these desk novelties in quantity.
• Who made it: Usually unmarked commercial foundry pieces, though similar quality figural animal novelties were widely produced by French bronze foundries and English manufacturers like Townshend & Co. or Victorian brass works specializing in animal-form desk wares.
• Age: Late Victorian to early Edwardian era, dating to circa 1885–1910.