Item ref: 5308
Private collection, United States
Formed of a flat base of scroll-shaped outline cast in low relief and standing on four naturalistic claw feet. With a recessed tinder box complete with its flintlock cock and corresponding steel, the latter also forming the tinder box cover, and with the flintlock mechanism and its projecting bar-trigger mounted on the underside of the base plate.
The base plate is decorated with a design of rococo strapwork in the Carlsbad and Vienna fashion, part foliated and forming a series of cartouches involving the standing figures of a rustic suitor and his intended, an urn of flowers between them. Fitted with inkwell, quill-holder of two sets of arms, and adjustable candle-holder moving on a tall slender shank. Retaining most of its original mercury-gilt finish throughout, the raised surfaces bright against a contrasting matted ground.
The base of the inkstand is decorated in the same rich and brilliant mercury-gilded style as the mounts of some Viennese and Carlsbad firearms of the early 18th century. The Bohemian city of Carlsbad had established itself by the early 18th century as a centre of luxury gunmaking, much on the strength of the large numbers of wealthy Spring and Summer visitors, who came from throughout Europe to take the waters in its fashionable mineral spas and to be seen over play in the gambling salons.
With limited exceptions, Carlsbad gunmakers frequently presented their work unsigned, a quirk which belies the colourful quality of their output but which was the requirement of works intended potentially for resale by dealers elsewhere. Parallel to their firearms, the gunmakers were also known for their luxurious domestic wares, foremost among which were combination inkstands, such as the present example, which were offered alongside the glittering holster pistols and deer rifles in much the same vein as expensive toys for the visiting clientele.
A brief overview of the 18th century Carlsbad gun trade is included in John Hayward, The Art of the Gunmaker, vol. II, pp. 131-2.