Pewter Inkwell c. 1936

Curator: This drawing from around 1936 is titled “Pewter Inkwell”, and was crafted with pencil on paper by Eugene Barrell. Editor: There's something undeniably melancholic about it, a sort of still-life gravity. I am interested by how the grey shades of the drawing gives it a timeless and maybe even sombre aura. It feels almost like a monument for a mundane object. Curator: The crosshatching that renders the subtle shine of the pewter is remarkable, but, if you look at the miniature rendering of the same object, with dimensions and cut-aways, the whole drawing does feel a little bit technical or perhaps pedagogical? Editor: Oh, I see that! Like something out of a manual. Perhaps it speaks to the early 20th-century fascination with efficiency and design. Inkwells themselves were, even in the 30's, beginning to feel like a relic, a piece of rapidly fading past as new technologies advanced, a little gravestone indeed. Curator: Precisely, the inkwell, historically, has represented ideas, letters, contracts... almost as a symbol for the voice of the everyman! It represents accessible literacy! What do you see reflected in the four holes at the top of the design? Editor: To me, those could almost be understood to echo or presage the advent of mass communication and multiple media outlets. Even more simply: four directions. It is easy to project multiple meanings onto the image, because an inkwell does contain a powerful essence and acts as an archetypal symbol: a vessel, a well of potential, and also loss when dry... Curator: Indeed. In drawing, too, the movement and gesture involved feels directly tied to revealing thought processes, both artistic and functional. The two renderings together remind me of architecture somehow... I love the soft precision on the lines, and how utilitarian it is as a design on paper. Editor: It's definitely one of those drawings that continues to speak volumes beyond its seemingly simple subject matter. A little capsule that makes me ruminate... Curator: And in its stillness, it quietly invites contemplation of forgotten technologies, old-fashioned things with unexpected potential... A ghost of future design that exists because of old means.