Mauchline Ware Inkstand

A Mauchline ware desk set consisting of a wood base, bevel-cut hinged glass inkwell, and two tartan ware dip pens. The wood base has two curved slots for pens and a square recess for the inkwell and rests on four round wooden legs. The is a oval-shaped transfer of the “Interior of Burns’ Cottage” applied to the base.

Robert Burns, Scotland’s National Poet, came to live on the outskirts of Mauchline, Scotland in the village at Mossgiel farm in 1784. Many of his poems are believed to have been written while he was there.

The production of Scottish white-wood products, or Mauchline ware, was carried out from the 1820s until 1939 by the firm of W & A Smith among other less long-lived manufacturers. Often, they used a basic transfer as on this inkstand, each piece having the view of the place of purchase. The transfer subjects ranged across Scotland and more of the British Isles to the rest of the world. A fire in 1933 stopped production, which was never restarted, and W & A Smith finally closed in 1939.