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 with Jane, her sister Cassandra and Mrs Austen for many years, and her Household Book would have been used regularly in the kitchen. In the years before many commercially available preparations were available, homemade recipes were important, and written ink recipes like Martha’s not only passed essential knowledge onto servants but also preserved them for future generations.

Jane Austen’s surviving manuscripts were written in a variety of this home-made iron gall ink with a goose-quill pen. Jane wrote at a very small table in her dining room in Chawton and Emma pays homage to the writer with black and white quill feathers, floating above myriad inkwells in shades of dark blue, bottle green and brown.

• Designer:  Emma Bossons
• Dimensions: H 10.00 x W 10.00 x D 10.00 cm