You might guess from all of the antique penmanship notebooks I post that I wish we would go back to handwriting letters using a pen and ink, and though I have yet to do this myself, if I did, I think this might be the inkwell I would choose to put to use! It also seems to me that this one, shaped like a poppy pod, with another sprouting forth, might inspire hallucinatory, stream of consciousness creative writing!
The seller I purchased this from described this as bronze; I am not entirely certain as I'm not especially adept at identifying metals but it seems likely to me the body of the piece is bronze and the base and lid brass. Both show greening, especially the underside of the flip top lid (which I believe lost its pull). Inside the inkwell is a brass insert lined with glass. No mark anywhere that I can see, but poppies seem to have been a bit of a theme right around the beginning of the 20th century, including a bronze and mosaic glass poppy inkwell produced by Tiffany & Co c. 1901, and I believe this dates to sometime around then.
2 15/16" diameter at base, 3 1/8" t. Inkwell opening is 1 1/8" diameter inkwell; insert measures 15/16" diameter at inside lip. Patination and minor corrosion as shown; overall good condition, structurally sound and completely usable but also lovely just as a sculptural object I think.
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