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[rhr]

I have always been interested in this goofy inkstand, but recently Michael Fultz purchased one and asked me about it, and got me thinking about it again. When he gets some photos of his inkstand ready, I'll post them here for him as well. Thanks, Michael. I had already finished all the patent research on the inkstand while doing the initial research on my patent book in 2001, so I thought I'd collect it all, and put it in some sort of order, and write it up to clarify some confusions about this inkstand. The patent numbers imprinted on the inkwell have been confounding collectors for a long time because by themselves they do not seem to refer to any US patents. You have to know how to preface them with the correct letters in order to find them. The information below is taken from Volume 1 of my book, Fountain Pen Patents 1707 to 1911, The Early Pensmiths, which is still forthcoming, so if you are going to make use of this information in a publication, or on a website, please cite it as your source.

This interesting patented inkstand is often referred to by collectors as being shaped like a whale. The inkwell portion is made of hard rubber and rests on various types of stands made of different materials. The body of the whale is the reservoir and the tail of the whale is the dipping cone, or funnel, or as the old terminology in the patent specifications refer to it, the "mouth-piece", thereby sort of standing the whale on its tail. ;~) On one side of the reservoir it is marked "Letters Patent No. 11233, 11234", and the imprint on the other side shows that it was marketed as the "The Century Inkstand". It was manufactured by the Century Inkstand Co. of Canton, Ohio. The inkwell reservoir, or the whale's body, sometimes rests on a caste iron stand, and sometimes on an oak base with brass cradle with pivot points. When the tail is pushed down the funnel fills up with ink, thus allowing the pen to be dipped, and when the funnel is released, the ink drains back into the body of the inkwell.



The numbers on its side do not refer to US utility patents, because that would place the inkstand in 1854. To find out whether those numbers are British you would also require the year they were issued. And Canadian patent numbers that low would place the inkstand in 1880. I have seen a few different versions of this inkstand over the years. It is typically found with a wooden base and a brass stand with pivot points. I have seen a wooden-based one on Ebay three times in the last 5-6 years, but there is also a single one on a caste iron base in the Veldon Badders book Inkwells: Identification & Values, Book II, on page 143. This latter one is from the Dixie Rodkey collection, and it is said to be from ca.1825, which is plainly wrong because hard rubber had not been invented yet. And more recently a double version of the inkstand on a caste iron base was offered by Cowan's Historic Americana Auctions, one well with a black hard rubber funnel, and one with a red hard rubber funnel. This one was conjectured to be from around 1901 to 1925. Century Double Inkwell.jpg

  Image courtesy of Cowan's Auctions.

As it turns out, this inkwell doesn't have just two patent numbers, but rather five, three utility patent numbers and two re-issue numbers, all granted to Edward S. Raff. The first patent, US patent no. 430,194, was issued on June 17, 1890, and was re-issued on Apr 26, 1892 as no. RE11,234. The second one, US patent no. 445,200, was issued on Jan 27, 1891, and was re-issued on Apr 26, 1892 as no. RE11,233. So that's where those two numbers on the side of the well come from. They're re-issue numbers, and you'll need those two prefacing letters in order to find them in the USPTO, Google, and EPO patent databases. The third one, US patent no. 445,201 was issued on Jan 27, 1891 and seems to be a variation, or an improvement on some aspect of patent no. 430,194.

There is one last reference to this company in the patent and trademark record. US trademark no. 51,014 was granted to the Century Inkstand Co. for "Inkstands", but it was issued only as late as Apr 3, 1906. It seemed like there was a rush to establish precedence and claim trademark rights around that time. In fact, it was almost a flurry of activity. But someone else is going to have to look up this trademark in one of the patent depository libraries to find out what the mark was and when it was first used, because this trademark is not a live mark, and is not available on the USPTO website.

George Kovalenko.

[rhr]

Here's an article from the American Stationer about the Century inkstand. It comes from a time when the inkstand was just starting to be merchandized.

George Kovalenko.

[rhr]

Here's a later version of the Century inkstand, this time with a "special" caste-iron base with a pen rest on the side, but again made single or double.  The double has two ink horns, one black hard rubber and one red hard rubber for two colors of ink.






George Kovalenko.