With the rise of cities, a society with more written rules, agreements and laws, more had to be recorded and the need for inkwells and inkstands grew. Until the second half of the eighteenth century, ink was sold loose from a barrel; the buyer had his own container or jar for this purpose, or an inkstand.
This rare rectangular inkstand here has, in addition to an inkwell, a removable sand caster and a drawer where the lacquer for the wax seals could be stored. It was made by Willem van Strant in Amsterdam in 1730.