Inkwell in the form of a model stove

Description

The ceramics factories at Winterthur, in which table and oven ceramics were produced from about 1550 until about 1730, were famous for their sumptuous tower¬stoves for use in luxuriously equipped rooms in eastern Switzerland (see no. 400). Stove models were generally used to illustrate the factory's products or as three¬dimensional maquettes of stoves to be made. But two models are also known from the Winterthur factories that were intended to be used as receptacles for ink and writing sand: one, dated 1641, is in the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum in Zurich; the other, shown here, represents a later type with blossoms, hanging fruit, allegorical figures and genre images. On two of its pilasters its function is humorously alluded to in words and pictures: "Vor Mittag will/ geistlich sein./ Nach Mittag gehn/ sy zum Wein" (before midday you're fond of thinking/ after midday you're off to drinking); and "Trinken macht oft/ class man schreiben/ und/ studieren/ lasset bleiben" (drinking oft has the effect/ that script and study you neglect).