Horse Head Pen Wipe

Description

• Design & Form: The piece is cast as a naturalistically modeled horse’s head wearing a bridle with decorative cheekpiece rosettes/tassels.
• The Brush: The horse’s upright mane consists of stiff, packed natural bristles (hog bristle or coarse horsehair). During the era of traditional dip pens, a writer would wipe their metallic pen nib through these vertical bristles to clean off excess ink and prevent clogging before setting the pen down.
• Base & Construction: The neck flares down into an ornate, scalloped, decorative base rim. The underside shows a hollow metal casting filled with a solid plaster/cement mixture, a standard manufacturing technique used to weigh the base down.
• Markings: The stamped or incised slash marks (resembling “III”) on the rear neck are foundry batch, assembly, or size numbers used by workshops during production.

Where it was Made

This style of detailed, naturalistic cast-metal figural desk novelties featuring inset bristle brushes was largely produced in Central Europe. The main production hub for these specific pieces was Vienna, Austria (renowned for its “Vienna Bronzes” and fine cast-metal animalier desk wares), though similar pieces were also manufactured in Germany and France.

Age

It dates from the late 19th century to the early 20th century (circa 1880–1910). This era marked the peak of elaborate desk presentation sets and dip pen accessories, right before fountain pens and eventually ballpoint pens rendered open bristle pen wipers obsolete.