Object ID
2004.7.1
Object Name
Inkwell
Object Collection
JAMES WM TOPITZES (is part of)
Date Created
circa 1946
Material
Brass
Object Entities
Topping, Peter (owned by)
Topitzes, James (is related to)
Brown, Sandra (is related to)
Topitzes, Harriete (is related to)
Topping, Peter (is related to)
Object Description
Brass feather pen holder with brass ink well. The feather pen is inside the holder. The pen holder has floral etchings on each of its wide sides. The etchings originate at the ends and protrude towards the center. In the center of each wide side is an etching of a single flower. The holder has bevelled edges with branch-like etchings running the length of the edges. The enclosed end of the pen holder has a crowning with geometric and floral etchings all around. At the open end of the pen holder is a hinged cap. There are simple geometric etchings on the cap. There is also a crest upon the cap with a hole bored through the center for a small chain that was once attached to the case of the pen holder. The feather pen is brown with the quill shaped to a writing point. The ink well is squared with bevelled corners on the top and bottom. The middle of the ink well is also squared with bevelled edges, yet balloons outward. The top and bottom edges have geometric etchings, as does the bevelled edges on the ballooned section. One side of the ink well is attached to the pen holder. The two sides adjacent to the attached side are without etchings on thier face. The side opposite the pen holder has a floral etching in the center of the ballooned face. The lid to the ink well is hinged with a small pivoting latch used to hold the lid shut.
Origin
Donated by Sandra Topitzes Brown. Presented to Peter William Topping as a gift for his participation in observing the Greek elections of 1946. It is unknown who presented Topping with the gift. Topping was a civilian member of the Allied Mission to Observe the Greek Elections that comprised of civilian and military personel from the United States, Great Britian, and France. Topping was a historian of Greece and the Mediterranean at both the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Pennsylvania. The Mission was agreed to by the Allied powers to fulfill thier obligation to support the formation of interim governments by free election in the aftermath of the Second World War, as stated in the Yalta Declaration on Liberated Europe.
A formal report on the mission was published in 1946 as: Report of the Allied Mission to Observe the Greek Elections, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1946.
Rights and Reproduction
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Citation
Inkwell, circa 1946, JAMES WM TOPITZES, National Hellenic Museum, https://collections.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/Detail/objects/7290. Accessed 03/29/24.