清代墨盒
銅墨盒被人們稱為“銅皮鐵骨”，器形獨特、墨盒是盛裝墨汁之器，晚清、民國時期盛行，舊時讀書人書桌上大多有此物，成為當時文人墨客的常用文化用品。因為硯臺上磨出的墨汁被風吹后容易干，用銅墨盒來儲存墨汁則能保濕不易揮發，隨時使用又可方便攜帶以備書寫之需。清代沒有現成的瓶裝墨汁供應于市，銅墨盒深受文人喜歡。
墨盒的制作，全部手工打磨，頗費時間。質地好的銅墨盒，往往要幾個月以上，甚至一年方能完工。銅墨盒往往是用紫銅做底和內膽，因紫銅含鉛量高，性軟防腐，所浸墨汁不致變質腐臭。盒身、盒蓋在清代主要是黃銅，民國時多為白銅，還有白銅、黃銅、紫銅共用，名“二鑲或三鑲”，但較為少見。盒蓋內嵌端石硯板，作掭筆之用 。盒身內壁上部有一圈薄薄的邊沿，與盒蓋相吻合，嚴實合密。這種設計既簡單實用，又美觀大方，置于案上，穩穩當當，玲瓏秀氣。
銅墨盒在我國的興盛了不足百年，隨著硬筆的興起，自來水筆逐漸成為日常的書寫工具，銅墨盒也經歷了取代硯臺又被墨汁取代的歷程。當它已退出歷史舞臺時，又成為了今天的收藏品，誰又能說不是墨盒的再度興起呢？他之所以被一些收藏人青睞，這不僅因為它曾經造就許多刻銅高手，還因為墨盒具有的深厚文化內涵。
Copper ink cartridge is known as "copper skin and iron bone". It has a unique shape and is used to hold ink. It was popular in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. Most of the desks of the old scholars had it, which became the common cultural articles of the literati at that time. Because the ink on the inkstone is easy to dry after being blown by the wind, using copper ink cartridge to store the ink can keep moisture and not volatilize easily, and it can be used at any time and conveniently carried for writing. In the Qing Dynasty, there was no ready-made bottled ink available in the city, and the copper ink cartridge was very popular with scholars.
Ink cartridge production, all hand grinding, quite time-consuming. Good quality copper ink cartridge often takes months or even a year to complete. Copper ink cartridge is usually made of copper as the bottom and inner tank, because of the high lead content of copper, soft anticorrosion, the ink soaked will not deteriorate. The body and cover of the box were mainly brass in the Qing Dynasty. In the period of the Republic of China, most of them were white copper. There were also white copper, brass and red copper. The name of the box was "two inlays or three inlays", but it was rare. The box cover is embedded with an end stone inkstone plate, which is used as a pen. There is a thin edge on the upper part of the inner wall of the box body, which is consistent with the box cover and tightly closed. This design is simple and practical, beautiful and generous, on the case, stable and appropriate, exquisite and elegant.
Copper ink cartridge has flourished in China for less than a hundred years. With the rise of hard pens, fountain pens have gradually become a daily writing tool. Copper ink cartridge has also experienced the process of replacing inkstone and ink. When it has left the stage of history and become today's collection, who can say that it is not the resurgence of ink cartridges? The reason why he is favored by some collectors is not only because it has created many copper carving masters, but also because of the deep cultural connotation of ink cartridges.
