Cast Bronze Figural Woman Inkwell

This unmarked figural inkwell depicts a woman styled in 19th-century attire.

Description

• The Figure: The inkwell is cast in bronze, depicting a woman with a detailed, expressive face framed by a bonnet tied with a prominent bow at her neck. She wears an ornate, tight-fitting corseted bodice decorated with horizontal bands and buttons, and holds a small bouquet of flowers in her right hand.
• The Skirt: Her expansive crinoline skirt consists of four deep ruffles or flounces, creating a heavy, stable base.
• The Hinge Mechanism: A hinge built into the back waistline of her dress allows the upper torso and head to tilt backward completely, revealing an integrated well designed to hold an insert.
• The Base Construction: The underside reveals a flat, circular tin plate capping the hollow bottom of the skirt. It is anchored firmly in the center by a traditional, hand-turned small square nut over a threaded iron tie-rod.

Origin and Date: Where and When Was It Made?

• When: This piece was manufactured during the mid-to-late 19th century, specifically between 1850 and 1880. The dress style accurately mirrors the Victorian crinoline fashion trend that peaked in the 1850s and 1860s. Furthermore, the use of a simple square nut and an iron center-rod over a tin backing plate is a quintessential manufacturing method for European and American cast-brass decorative novelties of this era before hex nuts and standardized factory threading became ubiquitous.