I know it's a rabbit with a cabbage......

...but what is the purpose of the brush in the cabbage? Is it a pin holder or something else?
I expected to see GERMANY when I turned it over but there are no marks. It's a little less than 2" tall. Cold painted metal, not brass or bronze.

Thanks!

 

A guess but, maybe a type of flower frog?

 

Possibly a postage stamp wetter.
Pot metal, cold painted, Japan or German would be my guess.

 

I'm afraid the bristles are too stiff and would tear any stamp. And they're too tight to use as a flower frog. It also won't hold water because the leaves on the cabbage were cast almost flat and bent into place so there are gaps between the leaves even though they overlap.

I did find a similar ink pot. So it may be something for the desk.

 

It's a pen wipe, for fountain pen nibs.

 

Anund took the words right out of my mouth!!

It's adorable, and a very long time since I've come across one.......any style.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=ant...ucTTAhWGPiYKHZrvC4UQ_AUIBygC&biw=1344&bih=711

 

Thank you!

 

That's charming. I suspect you will do rather well with it, too.

 

THAT is NIFTY!!!!!

 

I've decided to put it on eBay and see what happens.

I just haven't been able to find another to determine what it may be worth. And it's been a while since I had something this exciting to offer.

Thank you, everyone, for telling me what this is. Sometimes I have no clue what a thing is but I do know it's probably worth finding out. Discovery is one of the things that make this fun and interesting.

 

I'd see it at about £100 to £200 here. That wide because it's unusual.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/371933841341?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

Wrong.

It is a wipe for DIP PEN nibs.

This was used to wipe the excess ink off of the nib on your dip pen, to preserve the steel and prolong the use of the pen. The steel in those days rusted at the drop of a hat. To save money, you were advised to clean the point of your pen after each use.

Fountain pens had gold nibs, and therefore didn't rust. These were used for dip pens. The constant dipping into the acidic inks of the day meant that pen wipers like these were essential on any neat, tidy desk. The bristles of the pen-wiper would damage the feed underneath a fountain pen and clog the channels, which would only give you more strife later on.

I have seen pen wipers like this which were made of sterling silver. It was also very common to make your own pen-wipers at home using scrap fabric. It was the sort of thing Susie might make for papa when his birthday came around. As yours obviously demonstrates - they were often made in novelty forms. I have seen some which were shaped like birds.

 

post number 5......... ...is close.

 

Yes, but a fountain pen and a dip pen are not the same thing. Only a dip pen needs such frequent wiping.

 

Certainly I should have said dip and fountain pens, a slight oversight on my part. This style pen wipe was still being produced decades after dip pens fell out of favor.
Not all fountain pens had gold nibs, not sure how you came up with that but it isn't true. Clogging a fountain pen by wiping the nib on these soft bristle pads doesn't make any sense, clogging only happens when ink dries in the feed, the slot, the breather or on the tipping.

 

These days fountain pens do come with steel nibs, but the vast majority of antique ones would've had gold - it was the only material they had in those days which was able to withstand the corrosive effects of the ink for years and decades at a time. Still I maintain that something like this would more likely have been used with dip pens than fountain pens. Only the constant dipping would've required something like this to be a permanent fixture on someone's desk.

Clogging of a nib can happen in any number of ways, including by writing on unsuitable paper or improper cleaning of the nib.

 

I don't see an error in the listing. Maybe adding Antiques as a second category might be an idea. I think if I had the money I might bid myself. Hope it does well.

I believe there's a quail pen wipe current on eBay. (If not, it's just recently ended.) That seller wants big bucks, at least by my standards.

There's sterling ones listed as well, but they're not figural.

 

Eh, have used both fountain and dip pens since I was a kid, sold high-end fountain pens at retail for years, and over the years, have sold dozens of both on the secondary market - they all require wiping at some point, not just in cleaning, but also to remove excess ink, or debris like paper fibers, a stray hair, etc., or even to help start ink-flow in a fountain pen. I've always kept a pad of chamois pen wipes, originally one from my Mom, later made my own, and then bought one from the art & drafting supply I managed, can't remember which, but it was distributed by one of the German pen companies.

If you are so sure in your opinion, then perhaps you might cite reliable reference for your statements - in the meantime, the images below show a 1917 blurb for a novelty bristle pen-wiper with a fountain pen in the illustration, and a 1931 patent for a desktop bristle pen wipe, as well as one to fit on the cap of a fountain pen...

~ Cheryl