Madison Bay Company Brass Rocking Ink Blotter, 4.5 Inches Long

I had been searching for a larger roller blotter for years, and found a few antique models. This was the first affordable new model I've found anywhere. At the price I had to give it a try. Again, compared with the more common wooden "French" model you find other places, this is twice the size. Not too big but just right for signatures and envelopes and other times you write with a fountain pen but can't wait for the ink to dry on its own. It's also great looking with shiny brass. It looks expensive, and solid. I keep it on my desk at home and use it all the time.

I still write will pen and ink and needed a blotter.

It is a useful template/basis for a good rocker blotter. No picture-sorry...but two things (1) the screw is off-center through the brass cover, meaning it will screw on oriented only one of two ways. And, (2) the brass on the sides overrides the blotter itself-when blotting, the blotter paper will not touch your substrate in areas because the brass it too 'long', ..I had to carefully file off the excessive brass so it would not interfere w function. Good thing I have all the tools to do this.

Like others have said, a lot of this blotter was not lined up. The brass looks nice, but the wood insert just didn't fit inside, being about a millimeter shorter than the brass edges, which kept the blotter paper from touching the paper in the middle (not a small chunk either, a good 1.5 inches)But it's just soft brass and wood. So I stuck it in a clamp with some blue painter's tape covering the jaws to keep it from scratching the brass, and used a file to shape down the brass until it was flush with the wood. This took maybe 30 seconds a side. then I just took some 60 grit sandpaper (I used a random orbit sander, but you could just do it with sandpaper stuck to anything hard and straight and it'd be maybe one minute extra work) and made sure the whole surface was smooth and nice, then 120, then 220. I used the 220 to make sure no sharp burrs were left on the brass edges from the file (you could do that first step too with the sandpaper) and just to make sure the blotter paper would be more secure, I scuffed up the inside of the brass that wasn't visible with the sandpaper too, to give some more "bite" with the blotter.End result looks perfect, and it took me about five minutes. If you have a vise or clamp of some kind at home and are willing to spend about 5 minutes with a file and some sandpaper, I highly recommend this blotter. If you want it to WORK out of the box (like it honestly should, hence why I knocked two stars off) then pass on this.

This is a lovely blotter looks good on any desk don’t listen to disgruntled reviews

Bought for a gift. Received timely and as described and as promised. Bit pricey for what it is, but heck, so are fountain pens and ink!!!

When I removed the handle, the brass underneath was rusted. Also, the under-side of the brass is rusted and pitted. I polished it as well as I could. It seems the wood had rust-dust on it as well. Only the outside looks 'new', but that's a benefit of lacquered brass. After the work I put into it, it's decent now.

This is a lovely item for the reasonable price. I am more than pleased.