Topic: Ink Wells, Ink Bottles and Stands

[Paul S.]

seems I overlooked this one which I collected whilst at Kew on Tuesday.......   but I think this is the final item - I hope

[agincourt17]

Thank you for showing these last few 'inky design representations, Paul.

Snippets re:
Blackwood & Co. ink bottle RD 250430 of 16 February 1871 - Parcel 5; registrant's address 18 Bread Street Hill, City EC.
and
Blackwood & Co.RD 250600 ink bottle of 24 February 1871 - Parcel 8; registrant's address 18 Bread Street Hill, City EC.

From
http://www.thepalimpsest.co.uk/2014/11/ink-day-blackwood-co-ink-wherein-scant.html

London ink manufacturer Blackwood & Co departed from the pantheon of ink makers without leaving many traces behind.

An advertisement in The Times attests Blackwood's existence already in 1851. Their "steel pen, copying, writing and other inks" are "contained in the clean registered stone and glass bottles with durable cork" and are "superior to all others in use." At that date Blackwood was based at 26 Long Acre (Covent Garden) and continued to do so three years later in 1854.

In May 1856, Blackwood & Co had their ink bottles patented and again in 1871.

In 1861, another advertisement in The Times gives a different address: the manufacture is now at 18 Bread Street Hill in the City. In 1878, they take part in the Paris exhibition and although no awards were taken back home, Blackwood must have done well for themselves becoming writing ink suppliers to the H.M Stationery Office.

Palimpsest's research in the National Archives, British History online, Archive. org and Newspapers.com did not yield any more fruits. This is work in progress.

I think I will try to email 'Palimpsest' with links to these posts.


I attach a couple of photos of a ribbed ink bottle with integral pen rests that is very similar in design to Balckwood & Co.'s RD 250530, though this particular example appears to lack any identifying marks.

I also attach a couple of photos of an 'as dug' ink bottle embossed 'Blackwood & Co. | London' that must surely be from their RD 250600 even though it lacks the registry date lozenge. (Permission for the re-use of these images on the GMB granted by bottlemaster).

Fred.

[agincourt17]

Re. reply#87, John Short Downing pen tray RD 379826, registered 24 April 1882 - Parcel 2:

Anne E.B. has photos of this pen tray and its registry date lozenge on the Glass Queries Gallery at:
http://www.yobunny.org.uk/glassgallery/displayimage.php?pos=-8567
and
http://www.yobunny.org.uk/glassgallery/displayimage.php?pos=-8566

Fred.

[agincourt17]

Re. glass inkstand RD 270525, registered by Henry Herbert of 2 Charterhouse Building, [Goswell Road], London, EC., on 17 February 1873 - Parcel 8.

This is the only design registered by Henry Herbert revealed by an online summary search at TNA.

From the London Gazette of 12 July, 1872:

NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership heretofore existing between us the undersigned, Henry Herbert and Thomas Higgins, carrying on business at 2, Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Rroad, in the county of Middlesex, as Merchants and Manufacturers, under the style of Herbert and Higgins, has been this day dissolved by mutual consent. All debts due and owing to and from the late concern will be received and paid by the said Henry Herbert, who will continue to carry on the said business on his own account.—As witness our hands this 5th day of July, 1872.
Henry Herbert.
Thomas Higgins

Derived from:
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol46/pp385-406#h3-0005
Charterhouse Buildings stood on what is now the southern corner of Clerkenwell Road and Goswell Road. The stimulus for building them was the departure of Charterhouse School to Godalming and the sale of the old premises at the Charterhouse to the Merchant Taylors' Company as a new home for its own school. Part of the attraction was the spaciousness of the grounds. But given the Merchant Taylors' limited funds, and the need for alterations and extensive new building, a substantial part of the site, mostly playground and including the valuable frontages to Wilderness Row and Goswell Road, had to be let or sold for development. The property was conveyed to the Merchant Taylors in two lots, the intended building ground in 1868 and the remainder a few years later. In 1869 a small piece fronting Goswell Road was bought by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for building two adjoining vicarages: one for St Thomas's Charterhouse, immediately to the south of the plot, the other for St Mary's Charterhouse, in Playhouse Yard, between Golden Lane and Whitecross Street. At the same time, a deal was struck with two City warehousemen, Henry Thomas Tubbs and Joseph Lewis, for the development of the rest of the building ground.  Tubbs and Lewis built up most of the ground themselves, initially taking leases of the new buildings and subsequently exercising their option to buy the freeholds of both built-up and still-vacant plots. Their buildings were designed by the architect John Collier.
Of the original development by Tubbs and Lewis of 1870–4 only a fragment survives: Nos 4–7 Charterhouse Buildings in Goswell Road, erected in 1870. Many of the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1885. In this conflagration, reportedly the biggest London had seen since the Tooley Street blaze of 1861, the warehouses were reduced to rubble, their walls burst apart by the expansion of the iron floor-beams. Their replacements, and several more of the buildings, including Foresters' Hall and the two vicarages (Nos 27 and 27A Goswell Road) suffered heavy bomb-damage in the Second World War and had to be demolished. Much of the vacant land was acquired by St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College for building on, but remained vacant for many years, used only as parking space.  Redevelopment of this site, which extends from Clerkenwell Road behind Charterhouse Buildings to Goswell Street, began in 2006. The new buildings, collectively called Charterhouse the Square, comprise flats and some commercial spaces, together with a cardiac and cancer research centre for Bart's Hospital

Fred.

[agincourt17]

Re. glass inkstand RD 318467, registered by Widmore Hyatt of 5 Newhall Street, Dudley, on 9 February 1878 - Parcel 14.

I was particularly curious about this design because I was brought up on the outskirts of Dudley and went to the Grammar School in the town itself.

Although there are records of several glassworks operating in Dudley town in the mid-19th century, all but two seem to have ceased  production by 1875. The two remaining were:

The Eve Hill Glassworks, whose main production under the Lane family concentrated on lamp glasses and fancy globes and shades for various types of lighting, though they also made confectionery glass and stationer's equipment. This glassworks was operational until its closure in 1932 - the last of the Dudley glassworks, thereby ending a 200 year old tradition.

The Castle Foot Glassworks (situated, as its name suggests, at the foot of Dudley Castle hill opposite the end of the present Tower Street, and in the area of the present Dudley Zoo offices). Founded in the 1780s, by the 1870's it was run by John Renaud and produced mainly heavy cut and engraved table glass. It was operational until 1900 as Renaud & Son, and the main glasshouse was demolished in 1902.

In neither case can I find any mention of Widmore Hyatt in their records. 

A brief genealogical search has also failed to yield any results (which surprises me somewhat as  both 'Widmore' and 'Hyatt' are unusual  names, especially in the Dudley area).

Unfortunately, Newhall Street, Dudley, seems to have disappeared now,  probably as a  result of the extensive development of much of the town centre post-WW2.

If Widmore & Hyatt were retailers or merchants there were, of course, numerous glass bottle works and other glass works in the nearby Stourbridge area (or not much further away, in Birmingham) perfectly capable of producing ink bottles, ink stands, and the like on their behalf.

Fred

[flying free]

1901 census: at Ferme Park Road, Hornsey, Middlesex - Henry Thacker, WHOLESALE STATIONER, (62, head of household), living with his wife, Margaret A. Thatcher (50), his son, Charles H Thacker (27), plus 3 male boarders.

Fred.

   irrelevant to thread but made me laugh

[Paul S.]

obviously people who rented rooms 116 years ago were satisfied with a lot less in life -  on the other hand Mrs. Thatcher (typo ??) may well have been a very popular and amenable lady

good job it was the 1901 census that Fred wanted.............    I was doing some research last year regarding my own forbears and needed details from the 1932 census.                Being a bit thick, and not realizing there was a statutory 100 year wait before census details were released, I made enquiries only to discover that the entire collected data for that particular census were destroyed by fire on the night of Saturday 19th December 1941.          Enemy bombing, I hear you say, quite understandable since all the paperwork was stored in a warehouse in Hayes, Middlesex, and there was a war on  ............   but no, apparently no enemy action that night.               It turned out it was in all probability caused by a cigarette thrown down by one of the 'fire watchers'  
So, if you want anything from the 1932 census, forget it.

[Anne]

Just for accuracy, Paul, it was the 1931 Census not 1932. There was a national register taken in 1939 at the outbreak of war, which effectively fills the gap between the 1921 census (which hasn't yet been released under the 100 year closure rule) and the 1951 post war census, and which may be consulted on one website only (at a cost). 1941 census didn't happen due to the war, of course.

[Paul S.]

you're quite right Anne  -  heavens knows what possessed me to write '32 - so thanks for the correction.    I suppose we might now find this a slightly humorous loss of information, but I'd imagine they were beside themselves with grief at the time.

[Anne]

Re. glass inkstand RD 318467, registered by Widmore Hyatt of 5 Newhall Street, Dudley, on 9 February 1878 - Parcel 14.

In neither case can I find any mention of Widmore Hyatt in their records. 

A brief genealogical search has also failed to yield any results (which surprises me somewhat as  both 'Widmore' and 'Hyatt' are unusual  names, especially in the Dudley area).

Unfortunately, Newhall Street, Dudley, seems to have disappeared now,  probably as a  result of the extensive development of much of the town centre post-WW2.

If Widmore & Hyatt were retailers or merchants there were, of course, numerous glass bottle works and other glass works in the nearby Stourbridge area (or not much further away, in Birmingham) perfectly capable of producing ink bottles, ink stands, and the like on their behalf.

Fred

Hi Fred,  My genealogy hunting was a bit more fruitful as I did find Widmore Hyatt...

Widmore Hyatt, born 18.12.1818 in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. married twice (1) Maria Perkes  (born 1811) on 4.3.1838 in Wolverhampton - she died in 1886 in Dudley, aged 75;  (2) Sarah Ann Poultney in Dudley in 1888. Widmore Hyatt died in 1906 in Dudley, aged 87.

He appears on the census as follows:
1841 Widmore Hyatt, shop keeper, with Maria, both in Dudley
1851 Skidmore Hyatt, clerk, with Maria both at Fletcher Square, Dudley
1861 Widmore Hyatt, printer's cl[erk], with Maria and their niece Elizabeth Poultney, all at Dixons Green, Dudley
1871 Richard Hyatt, printer stationer, with Maria, both at 5 New Hall St., Dudley
1881 Widmore Hyatt, printer & stationer, with Maria and their niece Sarah A Poultney, all at Tansley Hill, Dudley
1891 Widmore Hyatt, retired printer, with Sarah A Hyatt, both at 12 Bennetts Hill, Dudley
1901 Widmore Hyatt, retired printer, with Sarah A Hyatt, both at Dixons Green, Dudley

Note the variants in first names given, they appear thus on the census sheets but may have been misheard or be earlier transcription errors.

So, his interest in ink bottles etc would appear to be from his being a printer and stationer. The "glass inkstand RD 318467" relates to the address given in the 1871 census, so confirms he is the same person.

There is a Newhall St in Tipton - is that the same place - I seem to recall Tipton and Dudley were close to each other?

Hope this helps.