inkstand with letter scale, maker: Narcisse Briais, France
This letter balance with ink set comes from France and has the N.B. logo of Narcisse Briais from Paris on the letter plate. A similar design is depicted in Le Panthéon de l'Industrie of January 2, 1876. In 2017, La Poste, the French Mail Services, issued a series of stamps depicting scales and letter scales. One stamp shows a comparable letter scale with ink set, only the fixed frame of the letter balance looks slightly different. My copy comes with three weights: 5g, 30g and 50g. Probably the weights of 10 and 2½ grams are missing. The feet of the inkwells fit into the recesses of the wooden base plate. The inkwells have loose lids. Dimensions base plate: 18.2 x 9.9 cm, height 3.0 cm. The unloaded letter scale is 9.5 cm high. On previous pages a few details have been written about the company Narcisse Briais, see for example here and here.
Below some more images of this old ink set with letter balance marked with the letters N.B. from Narcisse Briais.
back of the inkstand with letter scale
