British, Victorian Inkwell, Crimean War Mortar, Massive
This item is listed for historical interest only. It was listed on our site previously but has been sold and is no longer available for purchase.
Sold for: $450.00

Original period manufacture. We recently purchased this at auction, where it was advertised as American Civil War era Trench Art. However, after getting this behemoth home, and looking it over and thinkingabout it...I feel it is English, not American, and represents the Crimean War, or Russian War, 1854-56, and that itsoriginal purpose is that of an inkwell.It is primarily of brass construction, and measures 13 x 11 x 9 inches, and being of the Victorian era, it is appropriately ornate and complex. Almost to the point of being too heavy for itself, certainly too heavy for the small screws and posts meant to hold the contraption together.The center piece, is of course, the large Mortar with carrying handle, it is flanked on each side by brass cannon barrels, each measuring 8 inches in length and beneath each barrel is apyramid of stacked steel cannon balls, the right side stack now missing, and carefully replaced with painted balls of cork.At front, is a mortar round, with aflattened top and a recessfor a ceramic or glass ink pot. There was a lid covering at one time, as the thin mounting point on the lip of the flattened area is visible. In the mortar's opening is a faceted brown color projectile, appropriately stained with ink from an unfortunate incident in the past. All of this is fastened to a stepped brass oval base with rope like decoration around its edge.We haveillustrated our claim with a Roger Fenton image, of a similar British mortars in use during the siege of Sebastopol for reference. I would love to keep this but honestly just don't have the room, it truly is a magnificent thing.It is solid, but being so large and heavy, care must be taken in handling it. Some of the attaching screws are missing, as are some of the small stabilizingpegs