What is this object?

[haywoodhouse]

I have a few ideas about what this might be but want others to weigh in. It has no makers marks but there is what appears to be a word on the back side. Fairly thick an weighty. A little over 8 inches long.

[sonomabarn67 · Accepted solution]

Indian pen case with attached inkwell. May be Ottoman empire, I don't know how to read either.

[maxine*j]

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@sonomabarn67 wrote:

Indian pen case with attached inkwell. May be Ottoman empire, I don't know how to read either.

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I say ditto.

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[haywoodhouse]

Thank you! I thought it was an inkwell and a place for writing instruments too. Didn't know from where.

[gracieallen01]

In Japan, the name is 'Yatata', a traveling ink and brush holder.  You can probably find quite a few examples if you search by that name.

https://www.google.com/search?q=yatata&tbm=isch&hl=en-US&safe=images&chips=q:yatata,online_chips:ant...

[sonomabarn67]

Yes, you can find the Japanese examples but what I was referring to are the Indian and Islamic ones and i believe that is what OP has.

[gracieallen01]

I wasn't disagreeing.  In fact, there are one or two examples on the link I posted that are quite similar to the OP's.  I don't know by what name the piece goes by in the Mid East so I gathered a link by the name I know.  Yes, the Mid Eastern peoples use/used them as well, and I would personally hesitate to try to prove who developed or had them first.

[sonomabarn67]

I wasn't disagreeing either, just wanting to keep on track with what I had suggested earlier.

It actually has word(s) engraved on the side and if anyone can read them, we'll know exactly where it's from.

[gracieallen01]

I'm afraid that lettering has always been a challenge to me.  Dyslexia tends to hit different people in different ways and I gave up on trying to translate writings years ago because the path from my eye to my brain seems to have various detours and side trips along the way with a lot of places to get lost or turned around.

Hehehe, I just noticed my misspelling of Yatate.  Oh well, what's that they say?  "Dyslexics of the world, Untie."