This inkwell is inscribed ‘1607’, alongside ‘Correlis Dehane’, most likely the name of the owner. Although we don’t know anything about Dehane, this dated object was perhaps gifted to mark the moment in time when he completed his education or training and made the significant transition from youth to adulthood. For the children of middling and elite families education lasted from around the age of four until twenty-one. At about fourteen most children began an apprenticeship, perhaps far home, while a very small number of young men attended a university and possibly one of London’s Inns of Court. Dehane’s inkwell reminds us how references to time could be used to give material expression to momentous occasions.

Link to other resources: https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/shakespeare-100-objects-inkwell/

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