DUTCH SILVER INKSTAND

A Dutch silver inkstand

Willem Jansz. Schiff, (Nijmegen), circa 1750

1005 grams; 25.8 cm long, 19 cm wide, 13.5 cm high

The inkstand consists of two mounted cylindrical inkwell holders with four round recesses for the quills and a cylindrical lead inkwell liner, on which the domed cover with finial is placed; a table bell with silver clapper, with profiled rims and with a baluster-shaped faceted handle with crown-shaped end; a candlestick on an oval, stepped foot, faceted, flaring stem, ending in a spool-shaped sconce. The four parts are set recessed on an oblong stand, with brace-shaped corners. The stand is raised on four bun supports.

With a control mark of 1795 for Leiden struck on the bell, the stand and the candlestick. The maker’s mark is struck twice on the underside of the stand, twice on the underside of the inkwells and once on the rim of the underside of the bell. The candlestick bears no master’s mark and bears the town mark of Cologne from the period 1746-61.

A silver inkstand was not only a functional object but also served as a status symbol. It is no coincidence that many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century portraits and group portraits depict silver inkstands as an attribute. In this way the patron showed that he or she was literate and prosperous enough to afford such a costly silver object.

The silversmith

Willem Jansz. Schiff was born in 1706 and baptised in Nijmegen on 7 April 1706. He was the son of Jan Schiff, a merchant in silk fabrics, and Anneken van Essen. He married Catharina van Wesel in Heumen on 11 May in 1757. It is known that in 1739 he bought a house in Broerstraat, with its rear exit onto Korte Nieuwstraat. From 1749 held the position of bookkeeper of the diaconate and from 1754 ‘gemeensman’ (representative of the citizens). Willem was buried in Nijmegen on 4 May 1775.

Willem Schiff was a productive silversmith. Many of his works are described in the catalogue Nijmeegs Zilver, which accompanied the exhibition. This inkstand was on view at this exhibition and is also illustrated under catalogue number 93, fig. 48. What is interesting about this inkstand is that it is marked only with the maker’s mark of the silversmith. In the descriptions of objects in the catalogue, various objects by his hand, large and small, are likewise marked only with his maker’s mark. It is not clear why these works by Willem Schiff were not marked with the other guild marks of Nijmegen.