Sugar Dish Ink Stand

This is a fun piece - a sugar dish made into an ink stand. The porcelain aprt was made by Mennecy in the 18th century and looking at the quality during their early period. Later someone added the brass/bronze metal part to convert it into an ink stand which is a neat idea and couldn't have been cheap since it was well done! The porcelain dish has two really good quality floral arrangements as well as two smaller flowers. It is made of soft paste porcelain and thus has a creamy warm white color and the enamel colors look quite different from the usual hard paste one sees much more often. The metal foot was nicely done and might be a bit earlier than the top inkwell part. The top has been perfectly shaped to fit the quatrefoil type shape of the porcelain, has a nice rope deaign along the edge as well as around all the part except for the stamp holder. It has three open holes for the ink that might ahve once had inserts but probably not. The center is the holder for the pen and then there is a piece you could take out with a hinged cover. It might have held the nibs once. And last but not least there is a hinged covered stamp holder with a removable insert. A well done and quality ink stand that is quite unusual. The porcelain is in perfect condition with a few minor scratch marks to the glaze towards the top end which is normal on soft paste pieces and doesn't take away from it at all. The foot is still fairly shiny but could sue a polish and the top definitely needs a polish to bring it back to its old shine - a fairly easy job and it would make this one stunning ink stand! The porcelain piece is marked with the incised D.V mark as shown. The entire piece is 3.125 inches tall, 5.625 inches wide and 4.5 inches deep. Please email me for more information or other pictures.