Inkwell; France, Second Empire, c. 1850.

Inkwell; France, Second Empire, c. 1850.
Gilded bronze.
Measurements: 16 x 14, 5 x 11,5 cm.
This French inkwell from the Second Empire is an example of the decorative taste and technical sophistication that characterized the reign of Napoleon III. Made in gilt bronze, it combines functionality and ornamentation: the richly worked base, the circular lids and the upper handle refer to a historicist language, with neoclassical echoes reinterpreted from an industrial and bourgeois sensibility.
Pieces such as this one were intended for desks in high administration, the bourgeoisie or private salons, where writing was both an everyday practice and a gesture of status.