Antique French or English Napoleon III or Victorian era papier mache 15" wide double inkwell stand, elegant serpentine shaping with convex pen grooves on each side, center covered stamps or accoutrement compartment, two brass-topped pressed glass inkwells and extensive, colorful hand painted enamel decoration! A nice larger piece, 15" x 12.25" at the flared base. The hand painted decoration is quite interesting, blues, reds, cream colored shapes throughout with floral groupings in the pen trays and foliate accenting on the stamp box lid. You can see the gold enamel "filigree" style painted decoration has faded or worn away in a lot of places so this one was definitely used by its owner. A wonderful decorative accent nonetheless and priced at half of what it would go for if pristine. Don't miss it.
Very good condition for age and type, c.1850s, the desk tray and pen & inkwell holder is fully intact, has a few repairs, one visible chip to the bottom edge and, as is evidenced by the images, the colorful enamel decoration is somewhat age worn and likely had more extensive gold enamel accenting that what you see now. The Two undamaged inkwells are likely not be original, in pressed glass with a faceted type bases and thick brass tops. The fit but are very slightly smaller than the actual openings in the stand. Original center stamp box lid is intact. See pictures for all measurements.
