Sleeping Girl Inkwell
"Sleeping Girl" figural inkwell, attributed to Larkin Brothers, East Liverpool, Ohio. Circa 1850s - 1860s. An early example of American "Rockingham," named for the famous pottery in Rockingham, Yorkshire, which pioneered a popular coffee-brown ceramic glaze. Potter Jabez Vodrey (1795–1861) is generally credited with bringing the Rockingham style to the United States, when he established his pottery in East Liverpool. The Rockingham glaze was used for both decorative and utilitarian wares.
The best thing about this inkwell is that the Rockingham glaze is mostly worn off, exposing the clay body and giving the piece a feeling of great antiquity, like some medieval sarcophagus. Call it Midwestern wabi sabi. We like to imagine that its owners were so very passionate about their correspondence (or poetry, or whatever) that they actually wore out their inkwell. Go hard, poets!
A complimentary "Sleeping Boy" inkwell is illustrated in Equal in Goodness: Ohio Decorative Arts 1788-1860, p. 75).
3 3/4” x 5 3/8”
"Sleeping Girl" figural inkwell, attributed to Larkin Brothers, East Liverpool, Ohio. Circa 1850s - 1860s. An early example of American "Rockingham," named for the famous pottery in Rockingham, Yorkshire, which pioneered a popular coffee-brown ceramic glaze. Potter Jabez Vodrey (1795–1861) is generally credited with bringing the Rockingham style to the United States, when he established his pottery in East Liverpool. The Rockingham glaze was used for both decorative and utilitarian wares.
The best thing about this inkwell is that the Rockingham glaze is mostly worn off, exposing the clay body and giving the piece a feeling of great antiquity, like some medieval sarcophagus. Call it Midwestern wabi sabi. We like to imagine that its owners were so very passionate about their correspondence (or poetry, or whatever) that they actually wore out their inkwell. Go hard, poets!
A complimentary "Sleeping Boy" inkwell is illustrated in Equal in Goodness: Ohio Decorative Arts 1788-1860, p. 75).
3 3/4” x 5 3/8”
"Sleeping Girl" figural inkwell, attributed to Larkin Brothers, East Liverpool, Ohio. Circa 1850s - 1860s. An early example of American "Rockingham," named for the famous pottery in Rockingham, Yorkshire, which pioneered a popular coffee-brown ceramic glaze. Potter Jabez Vodrey (1795–1861) is generally credited with bringing the Rockingham style to the United States, when he established his pottery in East Liverpool. The Rockingham glaze was used for both decorative and utilitarian wares.
The best thing about this inkwell is that the Rockingham glaze is mostly worn off, exposing the clay body and giving the piece a feeling of great antiquity, like some medieval sarcophagus. Call it Midwestern wabi sabi. We like to imagine that its owners were so very passionate about their correspondence (or poetry, or whatever) that they actually wore out their inkwell. Go hard, poets!
A complimentary "Sleeping Boy" inkwell is illustrated in Equal in Goodness: Ohio Decorative Arts 1788-1860, p. 75).
3 3/4” x 5 3/8”