Unique Flower Frog help with ID please

Hiya, anyone know the maker of this item? Staffordshire? At a lose here. Thanks Steve

 

This seller is saying it’s an inkwell:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-St...-Tulip-Inkwell-Pen-Quill-Holder-/381541221977

 

Spill holder, not ink. Not convinced it's English with that frizzly stuff on it,but I'd agree on late 19th. An inexpensive fairing or market buy at the time.

 

I'd say 19thc Staffordshire for sure, seen that frizzy stuff on other pieces - and I think it could be an inkwell with those holes low down like that - just like the greyhound inkwells, no?

The eBay one has a big ink stain too!

 

I have no idea... but there are a handful calling it an inkwell:
https://www.google.com/search?q=sta...4KHf0vBnwQ_AUoAXoECAwQAQ&biw=320&bih=525#rp=1

 

I can see how the bottom part could be a pen holder, but why would they have an inkwell with two holes going into the same container? It's just one of those things that don't make sense. Inkwells didn't have lids to keep the ink from drying out? I'm willing to be educated.

 

Two holes = Two quills? I don't think these were really ever intended for use as the people acquiring them at the time were predominately working class and more than likely illiterate ..however, having a pen holder on the table when the vicar came for tea might suggest someone in the household had the ability to write? Sort of like the painted clock faces on other Staffordshire?

 

If British, not illiterate in the late 19th. Our factories and education acts had made provision for decent basic education. Literacy was up around 90 percent by the 1870s. You had the great Quaker factory owners, for example, as well as the drive by Prince Albert for universal education.

 

I hail from the birthplace of the industrial revolution. I don't think things were so enlightened down the mines and in the ironworks - maybe in the cities, but not so much in the industrial heartlands ..maybe the kids were being educated by the 1870's, but keep in mind a 50 year old couple in the 1870's would have been born in the 1820's ...

 

The surveys are the entire population, so it's feasible that the ten percent might be those older. Good article here, though: https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/education-in-victorian-england/

 

Thank you for your help.

 

If people tried sticking their quills and pens in some of those holes, they might stop listing them as pen holders. I have enough trouble trying to keep my toothbrushes upright. Remember, it's never a good idea to use "information" from someone else's listing unless they give a reference. People will say anything to make a sale. (I am ornery in the mornings.)