Tiffany Studios Wild Carrot Inkwell #855

Daucus Carota, also known as wild carrot or Queen Anne’s Lace, is a common wildflower which held a particular fascination for Louis Comfort Tiffany and his designers.  It appears at various stages of its development in his designs produced under the Tiffany name, ranging from examples of jewelry designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany to a spectacular Favrile Pottery vase, a line of bronze candlesticks, and this unusual and rare inkstand.

The round base of the stand features a motif in relief of the plant’s bristly, pinnate leaves, while the central inkwell with hinged lid takes the form of the sculptural seed head which forms in the fall.

The Queen Anne’s Lace inkstand was probably designed by Clara Driscoll under Tiffany’s direction; she references her intent to make objects based on the flower in a letter to her family in August of 1898. An example of this inkwell was likely exhibited in Siegfried Bing’s exhibition held at the Grafton Galleries in the spring of 1899; item no. 32 in Bing’s catalogue of the exhibition is referred to as “inkstand in metal, wild carrot.”

This rare piece of early Tiffany metalwork bears both the stamp for Tiffany Studios and the Tiffany Glass Decorating Co. monogram on the underside, indicating its early date of production.

Two examples with different finishes are shown here.