Bilderdijk’s writing equipment

When writing, Bilderdijk made use of this pewter ink vessel and accompanying bowl. Anyone who is afflicted with 'writing itch', he wrote in 1805, faces the choice of either suppressing the urge to write or giving in to it and 'sailing into the sea full of bile nut and vinegar, ‘Of the Ink Vessel’ (‘Van 't Inktvat’). (Ink was then made from gallnuts and the additions often included vinegar.) Throughout his life, Bilderdijk continued to sail that sea full of bile nuts and vinegar on a daily basis.

As a poet, he initially made a career during the time of the eighteenth-century poetry societies, which largely regarded poetry as a craft. Later, however, in the spirit of Romanticism, he regarded the writing of poetry as an intuitive and unconscious outpouring of 'overwhelming feelings’, without any purpose, such as weeping or laughing: ‘Outpouring of feeling that demands air, that spreads, that it must tell itself that it must multiply, or else the heart should burst and the mind go over to the overstrain of rage.’ This did not alter the fact that Bilderdijk's poetry did indeed require great craftsmanship.

The pewter goose-feather pen holder fits well with the pewter ink vessel placed next to it. In the time of the goose-feather pen, writing was quite an art, even from a purely technical point of view. For example, the tip of the quill quickly became blunt, so the writer had to sharpen the feather regularly with a pen knife. Besides, it was difficult to avoid ink stains with a quill pen.

Bilderdijk understood the art of writing perfectly well. ‘Good handling of the pen / Is of the most useful that I know’ is one of the spells he wrote. Typical of Bilderdijk, who is always oriented towards the past, is that he also saw writing as a historical phenomenon:

Phoenicia first invented the art of writing, That creates words, devoid of the sound of speech, And the sound of breath, flowing in the wind, With pen and ink binds to the white paper.