Sand Sifters, by Jim Nelson

One of our long-standing members, Jim Nelson has written an excellent article on Sand Sifters. Thank you, Jim, for allowing us to share this. Here it is!

What is a sand sifter?

That question came up when a web site video about an old desk circulated among our club members. It was a video that shows the workings of the Roentgens’ Berlin Secretary Cabinet. It was made in the 1700’s and owned by King Frederick William II and it’s located in a Berlin museum. “A writing cabinet crowned with a chiming clock, it features finely designed marquetry panels and elaborate mechanisms that allow for doors and drawers to be opened automatically at the touch of a button.”

This appeared on the video in one drawer when it popped open:

And it was described as “Inkwell & sand sifter used for writing”.

So, what is a “sand sifter”? They went by several names: sand sifter, sand duster, sanders, ink sander, pounces, pounce pots, etc. A sand box was also sometimes part of the inkstand set to hold extra sand. The sand box, usually made of tin, sometimes of wood, was a common desk article along with the wafer box and ink stand. The “sand” used was also referred to as “pounce.”

In the 19th century the free-standing pounce pots or sanders often had a shallow dish round the top so that pounce or sand could be returned to the pot and reused … and had holes in the top so they could be used like a salt or pepper shaker. The process is very effective for quickly drying ink.

I think they had a couple uses. I think the first or earlier use was to treat the paper or parchment with pounce before it was written on. This prepared the paper for writing or drawing which was done with quill and ink. Old paper didn’t absorb ink uniformly, had a rough surface and if the paper was “unsized”, it lacked the thin gelatinous material used to fill the surface of the paper and make it smooth enough for writing with a quill or a steel nib.

Pounce is a fine powder, most often made from a mixture of finely ground materials, sandarac gum, pumice, cuttlefish bone or from finely ground sand, salt, talc, or other minerals.

(Sandarac: a brittle, usually pale yellow, more or less transparent, faintly aromatic resin exuding from the bark of the sandarac tree and used chiefly as incense and in making varnish. Pumice: a porous or spongy form of volcanic glass, used, esp. when powered, as an abrasive.)

Pouncing was done to size the paper or prepare the parchment. The pounce or size is rubbed onto the paper to act as a protecting filler or glaze. Sizing is done to reduce the paper’s tendency to absorb liquid, with the goal of allowing inks and paints to remain on the surface of the paper and to dry there, rather than be absorbed into the paper. This provides a more consistent, economical, and precise printing, painting, and writing surface. This is achieved by curbing the paper fibers’ tendency to absorb liquids by capillary action.

Before parchment was used by scribes, it usually underwent a number of treatments (pouncing or sizing) to prepare it for writing. This was to improve smoothness and ability to absorb the correct amount of inks and colors. The parchment was rubbed with pumice powder onto the flesh side of the parchment in order to produce a smooth, silky nap to which the inks will adhere. It also allows the inks to penetrate deep into the fibers which adds to the permanence of the writing. Other desirable attributes were to increase whiteness of the surface, remove stains and to enhance grain patterns if required. Medieval scribes usually pounced their parchment a second time (also with pumice) before writing.

Pounce bags were used in the early days of engineering and technical drafting. The bag contained a very finely ground chalk like powder and you pounced (lightly beat) your paper after doing your layout lines with a pencil, then went over the lines with ink.

I think a later secondary use for sanders that evolved was sprinkling sand over wet ink to hasten drying. Old paper didn’t absorb ink uniformly and dip pens often left much ink, so to dry the ink and keep it from smearing, a fine sand was sprinkled on the ink. The pounce or sand is gently sprinkled all over the writing on the paper. After absorbing and drying the ink, it was poured back into the sander to be used again. That is why old sanders have a concave bowl like top, to make it easier to put leftover pounce back into the pot.

When quill pens were the tool of choice, unless you are a real quill-cutting master, your nibs tend to be very wet writers. Sand would soak up the excess ink so you could handle the paper sooner without smearing the writing.

Some quotes found on the web:

Blotting paper appeared in America during the 1840’s or 1850’s. But the use of sand continued, especially in Europe. The 1888 edition of “Notes and Queries”, located at the University of Virginia, contains some interesting stories about the continued use of sand to absorb ink.

T. Adolphus Trollope writes: “In Italy at the present day the use of blotting paper, save by English and Americans, is almost unknown. The public offices are liberally supplied with sand, with the result of rendering all of the desks and tables grimy to a very disagreeable degree.”

He goes on to say when opening a letter, “Not only will a quantity of loose sand fall from the sheet, but the abundantly used ink will render up to the smirched fingers a considerable quantity of the gritty material.”

Moreover, this sand is not the kind one might think. Trollope continues: “The sand used is not fine sand such as one might find at the seashore, but a much coarser variety, sometimes red, but more generally blue, and is…singularly disagreeable when well-saturated with half-dried ink.”

Another contributor, identified as W.C.B., writes: “Fine sand for drying writing-ink is still used, I believe, in the offices of some old-fashioned solicitors. I think I saw it in use in Gray’s Inn in 1869. There are a few of the old school left who prefer letter-paper, folded and sealed with a wafer, to the modern gummed envelope.”

This continued use of sand boxes into the 1860’s, well after the advent of blotting paper, by a British law firm offers modern pen users an insight into the mindset of early document writers. For the lawyer the importance of sand is a matter of decorum, like the black judicial robe or powdered wig. Sprinkling a page with sand is a ritual. Fine white sand drizzling off the paper when a letter is opened has a powerful impact on the reader.

Here are pictures of some ink sanders from a web site

To see a quill and sander in action, watch Joseph Fiennes as Shakespeare in the movie Shakespeare in Love.

The use of blotting paper phased out the use of sanders. Ink blotters were usually made of a soft absorbent paper formed into a card and were used to dry up excess ink. When used to blot ink from writings, the writing will appear in reverse on the surface of the blotting paper, a phenomenon which has been used as a plot device in a number of detective stories, such as in the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter.

With the invention of ballpoint pen in the 1950s, ink blotters disappeared from the average office desk. Today, these vintage blotters, made in the 1930s and 1940s, are collectibles. Ink Blotters were a very popular form of advertising that were often given away by fountain pen manufacturers, banks, merchants and especially Insurance Companies. Antique Ink blotters were as common as business cards are today. 

It was not until the 1850s that blotting paper came into common use in America, when Joseph Parker and Son started manufacturing blotting paper. In the late 1800s, a patent was issued for improved blotting paper which featured a smooth surface on one side and a blotting surface on the other. Rocker blotters were an important piece of desk equipment from the late 1880s until the 1950s. This type of blotter had a small handle and a rounded surface where the blotting paper was attached.

Blotting paper was first manufactured in the United States by Joseph Parker & Son. Parker (no relation to Parker Pens) became the industry leader after recognizing the absorbent quality of softer paper sheets made without adding a binding element, or “sizing,” to the paper mixture. The result was a thicker card material that absorbed ink without smudging written words.

The manufacturing of blotting paper was established in 1840 by J.K. Herrick and Joseph Parker as J.K. Herrick & Co.; they underwent several name changes after 1845 and in 1892 incorporated as Joseph Parker & Son Company, New Haven, Conn.; they closed in 1970.

Letter writers in the days before blotting paper lived in a world of dip pens, ink wells, candles, wafers, and sand. For many people today the only gestalt involved in writing a letter is finding a sheet of paper and a ballpoint pen. It must be a thrill to receive an elegantly written letter on cotton paper, sanded and sealed. Imagine trying to send a “sanded” letter today. The Postal Service would shut down the mail stream and call in Homeland Security, thinking it was an anthrax attack. Times have certainly changed.