Fun Little Silver & Bronze Ink Well Found Today…

[bigcaddy64]

I was out doing some saturday morning yard sales when I stumbled upon another great sale of a guy clearing out tons of really old stuff that belonged to his grandfather.

Amid the tables filled with interesting treasures, this little apple shaped piece just hypnotized me. After working out pricing for my finds it spent the rest of the day in a box until I could get home at investigate further.

It’s beautifully made of copper with some type of applied finish. It’s not enamel but it looks metallic in the sunlight The leaves and ball feet are silver as is the inner support ring. It’s missing the glass insert but I can find one to slip inside. There’s a few dents but I can work those out with my nylon hammers so it’s a bit more stable on a flat surface. .

There’s not obvious hallmark aside from the cursive “L“ and the Silver & Copper stamp.

The makers mark is irrelevant because I’m going to keep the little gem on my bookcase for a long time

 

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[tamrock]

Nice little item. It may of had a glass ink bowl in it at one time. I'm thinking that L mark is listed somewhere.

 

[Red-Coat]

What an attractive inkwell.

Irrelevant it way well be, but the cursive £ mark is for the La Pierre Manufacturing Company, Founded as a small shop in about 1888 by Frank H. La Pierre at 18 East 14th St. in New York, NY making a variety of novelties and small wares. Incoporated in Newark, NJ in 1895 and again by La Pierre and H. C. Brown until purchased by the International Silver Company in 1929, when they were moved to Wallingford, Connecticut.

 

[bigcaddy64]

What an attractive inkwell.

Irrelevant it way well be, but the cursive £ mark is for the La Pierre Manufacturing Company, Founded as a small shop in about 1888 by Frank H. La Pierre at 18 East 14th St. in New York, NY making a variety of novelties and small wares. Incoporated in Newark, NJ in 1895 and again by La Pierre and H. C. Brown until purchased by the International Silver Company in 1929, when they were moved to Wallingford, Connecticut.

thank you and I actually found out the mark last night. I also found a pair of decorative urns on another auction site with the same red finish on them.

Is there a specific style or method used to apply that finish. It doesn’t look like paint and is definitely not enamel. I didn’t find much about La Pierre’s artist stable that mentioned any methods they used creating their beautiful pieces of work.

 

[Red-Coat]

thank you and I actually found out the mark last night. I also found a pair of decorative urns on another auction site with the same red finish on them.

Is there a specific style or method used to apply that finish. It doesn’t look like paint and is definitely not enamel. I didn’t find much about La Pierre’s artist stable that mentioned any methods they used creating their beautiful pieces of work.

You're welcome.

The coloured finish is achieved through patination of the copper by immersion in a hot solution of copper sulphate and/or copper acetate. Companies such as Tiffany widely used this technique for fancy decorative items.

A typical process would be to polish the copper with ground pumice to remove surface impurities and oxidation before rinsing in distilled water and then dilute phosphoric acid. A solution of copper sulphate (or copper acetate) is then heated to boiling point and the item to be patinated is suspended in it for 15 minutes before transferring to boiling water in order to maintain the temperature. Ammonium chloride is then added to the patinating solution and the item placed back into it. After boiling for another 10 minutes (or until the desired colour is achieved), the item is removed, rinsed in distilled water, and then dried by wiping with acetone. The final colour can also be manipulated over a range from cherry-red to brick-red, through to a rich plum colour by adjusting the quantities of the chemicals, as well as varying the two immersion times.