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Inkwells

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Wall paintings from Pompeii (Italy) showing still-lives with various writing implements, 1st century CE. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, inv. 4675, 8598, 4676, 9819. By permission
of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e per il Turismo – Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Photos by Giorgio Albano. After Anna Willi, 2021

1st century, from a Roman tomb between via Molino a Vento and via dell’Istria

“Inkwell made up of two cylindrical bronze vessels, already joined together, decorated externally with damask engravings in silver with a motif of “sea waves” and a branch of ivy.
The two discs that served as lids had to be applied to a wooden or cork stopper and have a circular opening in the middle through which the pen was dipped, and which in turn was provided with its own lid, fixed with a hinge.”


https://museoantichitawinckelmann.it

Grave goods of a female burial (burial 11) from Nijmegen, Netherlands, that included a bronze inkwell, three iron stili, an iron knife and remains of an iron wax spatula, 95–110 CE. From Koster 2013, 65 fig. 38. © Collection Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen. After Anna Willi, 2021
Roman Samian and metal inkwells from Novo mesto and
Drnovo (Slovenia).
National Museum of Slovenia, inv. R 1487, R 634, R
635, R 1038. © National Museum of Slovenia, photo by Tomaž Lauko. After Anna Willi, 2021
Metal inkwell, type Noll, with gold and silver decoration with an image of Aphrodite, Adonis and Erotes.
From Vaison-la-Romaine, France, 1st/2nd century CE. Height: 4.6 cm [with a lid]; Diameter: 4.7 cm
Louvre, inv. BJ1950
  1. Manual of Roman everyday writing vol. 2: writing equipment, Nottingham 2021, Anna Willi https://www.academia.edu

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