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Why do antique inkstands come with plastic ink reservoirs?
I have several 19th century inkstands, one Russian, two English. All three are sterling. Are the plastic reservoirs original to the inkstand. I am think of replacing one of the plastic, with a custom made sterling reservoir. Does fountain pen ink maintain as well in metal as it does in plastic? Better? Worse? Thanks.
I also noticed that ink evaporates in the plastic, after several days.
Plastic was invented in the 1800's so it is possible, but unlikely, that the reservoirs were original to the inkstands. It is also likely that they were placed in there either to protect the inkstand or to replace the original well. I would do a bit more research before discarding them however if you wanted to replace them with something else I would say go ahead. My preference would be glass as it would hold the ink best however you would need to find a glass blower who could make the custom holders. If you find that the plastic was original then keep them, if they were added sometime after production it would probably be safe to discard them. Just be careful not to make any changes to the inkwells themselves as that generally will reduce their value.
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