MARK OF JOHN AND ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS, LONDON, 1824

This ingenious inkpot works by holding the ink under pressure in the thick glass liner of the cylindrical silver-gilt pot. When ink is required it is forced out of the reservoir by turning the Royal crown finial clockwise. This lowers the cork plunger which drives the ink out of the container into the conical vessel on the side. The pen-nib is dipped into the container and replenished with ink. A similar inkpot of 1825 is illustrated in M. Findlay, Western Writing Implements in the Age of the Quill Pen, Carlisle, 1990, p. 162, pl. 254.