Rathbone Arts & Crafts Inkwell

This handmade brass inkwell has the model number 680 and a 1903 date on its base. The design is understated but stylish.

Richard Llewellyn Rathbone (1864-1939), was one of the best metalworkers of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was born in Lancashire, son of Richard Rathbone, a Liverpool merchant. He established his own studio in Liverpool in the 1890s and taught metalworking at the University of Liverpool. In c1903 he moved to London where he was appointed head of the Sir John Cass Institute and taught at the London Central School of Arts and Crafts.

As well as producing his own designs, he also made metal fittings for other designers including C.F.A. Voysey, A.H. Mackmurdo and Heywood Sumner. He supplied many companies like Morris and Co, Arthur Simpson and The Handicrafts, and Liberty’s to name but a few. Rathbone sold many of his designs to Faulkner Bronze Company that would eventually become Jesson Birkett & Co. They continued to make some of his earlier designs between 1902 and 1910. Rathbone moved away from the Arts and Crafts style around 1905 and the early marked pieces are rare and much sought after.