orks which have been written upon it. It
is no uncommon thing to read of large sums paid for a writing desk on
which the manuscript of a famous book has been penned, and some of the
writing tables upon which deeds of historical fame have been signed have
gained a reputation and a money value out of all proportion to their
curio or antiquarian merits. Not long ago the late King Edward presented
to the Commonwealth of Australia the table on which the great Charter
was signed, together with the inkstand and pen used on that occasion.
Those will be relics for future generations to value.

The table appointments are among the collectable curios of the library,
and prominent among these is the inkstand. Inkstands find their
prototypes in the inkhorns of the scribe; and throughout the generations
which have provided curios for twentieth-century collectors there have
been fresh supplies in silver, pewter, Sheffield plate, copper, bronze,
iron, wood, china, and brass. Very beautiful indeed are some of the old
inkstands in their separate vase-like attachments. The ink-well was
formerly accompanied by a sand box or a pounce caster, in modern days
superseded by a second ink-well. The sand casters for sprinkling pounce
or sand upon newly written pages were a necessity before the days of
blotting paper. Perhaps some day blotters, blotting pads, and the like,
may become collectable curios!

Collectors of old china are familiar with the rare boxes, egg-cup-like
in form, made by Richard Chaffers, of Liverpool, the blue and white
decoration, the name of the potter in the narrowed portion of the box
being characteristic of what was for a long time known as "Dick's
Pepperbox." It was, however, intended for a pounce box, the pounce or
pumice being a fine powder of the cuttle-fish bone, afterwards giving
the name to the pounce paper or transparent tracing material. Of the
inkstands to be seen in our museums there are many dating from almost
prehistoric times; their variety may be instanced by mention of one in
the Berlin Museum, an Egyptian curio said to be 3,400 years old, below
the ink compartments being a case for holding reed pens.

In early days before even well-to-do people could read and write the
scribe found a ready occupation. The materials he used were carried
about in a writing case of metal, and among such curios are writing
cases which were used in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They
were often the work of the craft