posted 01-04-2004 01:53 PM            

Apparently pounce (a.k.a., sandarac or pulverized chalk or cuttle-shell) was first used to prepare unfinished (or unsized) paper (parchment). In early days most paper was untreated and needed pouncing. If this wasn't done first then the paper would tend to absorb the ink causing the writing to blur and to get fuzzy.

When a writer made an mistake they would scrape the ink off the parchment or paper. Before making the correction they would retreat the scraped area with pounce otherwise the ink would not set up correctly on the scraped area and would soak into the paper causing the writing to blur.

posted 01-04-2004 06:11 PM            

Paper is a different matter. From the start, there has been two basic types of paper made, sized and unsized. Sized paper, which has animal hide glue added to the vat water, was intended for painting, drawing, and writing; hand-cast writing and watercolour papers are still made in the same way today. The medium was intended to sit on the surface of the paper, not be absorbed by it. I suppose that if the sheet was excessively sized, it might need a bit of pouncing, but generally to do so would defeat the whole purpose, making the likelihood of blurring increase.

Unsized sheets were intended for printing and printmaking, which requires an open, absorbent surface. There would be no point to pouncing before hand, though it is still done post impression to prevent offsetting. Such paper can be treated to make it 'writable' by dipping or painting with a size solution, just as sized paper can be made right for the press, though it's a bother; I did a job on Arches 300 lb watercolour paper and it took three days of soaking and rinsing to make the sheets printable.

And, having also hand-ground, mixed, and used 18th century formula inks, I can tell you they behave quite differently from modern inks. They tend to pool and crest (like a cup filled just to the spilling point with water) and take considerably longer to dry, minutes compared to the seconds produced by chemical driers. Pouncing with cuttlefish hastened the drying and helps stabilize the pen stroke at the same time. I have examples in my ephemeral file where the powder grains can still be seen in the broad strokes.

posted 01-04-2004 11:21 PM            

WEV is a very experienced printer. In fact he probably knows more about letter set printing and type setting than anyone else alive today. Really. I will have to bow to him in this matter.

posted 01-05-2004 12:09 PM            

Since more desktop inkstands were made in pewter than silver, illustrations are easier to find in that literature. These shakers were either standing on trays ("standishes")or incorporated into compartments in lidded or open boxes. The pots had a perforated top that was either depressed or surrounded by a raised rim, so that the powders or sand could be poured back for reuse after application.

Fennimore illustrates one (fig. 332) in his "Knopf Collector's Guide to Silver and Pewter," and states they were made in a variety of materials, including slver, and were extensively faked early in the 20th Century when the collecting of writing implements was popular. About a dozen examples of various forms are shown in Hornsby's "Pewter of the Western World" (the term "pounce pot" is used). These examples are all after about 1780; if the earlier forms were of a different nature (like pepperboxes, for instance) I have not yet come across an illustration so named. I will keep looking as time permits, as a "true" or period pounce-pot might turn out to be somewhat different.

N.B. Earlier silver inkstands by John Coney and Philip Syng (illustrated in Fales Early American Silver and elsewhere are not appreciably different, nor are 17th and 18th Century Engliish examples.