Martha THE JANE AUSTEN COLLECTION Moorcroft designer, Emma Bossons FRSA brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive in a collection launched in August 2023 at Jane Austen’s village of Chawton in Hampshire. Designer: Emma Bossons FRSA Shapes: Inkwell Editions: open Size: H 7.5cm Jane Austen’s friend Martha Lloyd wrote a Receipt for Ink within her Household Book, which is today one of the many treasures of Jane Austen’s House. Martha lived at the House, with Jane, Cassandra and Mrs Austen for many years, and her Household Book would have been used regularly in the kitchen. Martha’s manuscript contains not only recipes for food but also recipes for useful household items such as the receipt for ink. In the years before many commercially available preparations were available, homemade recipes were important, and written recipes like Martha’s not only passed essential knowledge onto servants but also preserved them for future generations. Iron Gall ink is in fact one of the oldest forms of ink known to man. It was certainly use by the Romans and then throughout the ensuing centuries. The components of the ink are important as the galls of the oak tree contain gallotanic acid, which can be released from the galls by crushing them. If this is then mixed with water, a form of iron sulphate and gum Arabic it creates an ink. Jane Austen’s surviving manuscripts were written in a variety of this home-made iron gall ink and Moorcroft wanted to pay homage to the writer by creating a design on both an inkwell but also on a candlestick, the type that Jane may have used to illuminate her work as the nights drew in and the days became darker.
