'Bonney' pansies

My favorite flower in an old local ink bottle...

Another business in South Hanover(just down the street, now a private dwelling) was the Bonney Ink Factory. William Bonney, known as "Ink Bonney", did a good deal of experimenting before he had a product he dared to offer in competition with other established companies, but eventually he had them coming to him. He had a two story shop where he had mixing vats, dyes, and pots, and other paraphernalia he used in the manufacture of his special ink.for about 40 years from just after the Civil war into the early 1900's. An accident nearly blinded him, and his daughter, Cora tried hard to carry on, but she finally sold out the dyes and formulas to the Carter Ink Co.

Barbara Barker, Focus on History series

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Inks on the web


Many poets have played off of the surplus of pansy nicknames: appealing/To hearts that own our nature's common lot. Strow me the ground with daffadown-dillies,/And cowslips, and king-cups,/and loved lilies,-/The pretty pawnce. Spenser.

The French started the custom of presenting a bride with a bouquet of pansies (or thoughts), and marigolds (cares), on her wedding day; this was a suggesting gift for the bride which hinted at the afflictions of domestic life rather than the joy of matrimony.

Some critiques of Wordsworth's use of the pansy combine the same sense of loss with the idea of pensive reflection.

Pradip Kumar Patra and Amar Nath Prasad suggest that The Pansy is the flower of thought; the pansy at the poet's feet prompts the thought of lost joy and of exile from the heavenly glory. This sense of loss deeply influenced William Wordsworth's attitude towards nature. Despite the melancholy undertones of the pansy's symbolism, Wordsworth's resolution for the flower and its role in poetry stood as such: long as there are violets/They will have a place in story.

Like Wordsworth, L.M. Francis also notes the sad tendency of the flower's appearance, saying Napoleon's flower, - and many look/On thy fair leaves, as on a book/And mourn that glory's golden light/Should e'er be tinged with shame and wo,/As the dark purple shades thy glow.

From Wikipedia