Spider's Ink

Today's shot is a bit of another emergency blip. I've always loved the design of these little boxes of Winsor & Newton drawing inks (the even tinier bottle of ink inside has the same design on the label but it was too small to get on camera). I'm no artist - I can barely draw a stick man - but my sister is and I can remember her using these inks even when I was a small kid.
Each colour of ink has a different design - a polar bear for Pure White, a steam train for Deep Red, a squirrel for Burnt Sienna, a Dalmatian puppy sitting in front of a wall for Brick Red, a lizard crawling across rocks for Viridian and a top hat wearing spider for Black Indian ink, as shown in my image, being just a few.
The company is based in London and provides a variety of fine art products including acrylics, oils, watercolours, gouache, brushes, canvases, papers, graphite and coloured pencils, markers, charcoals and the aforementioned inks.
The company was founded in 1832 by William Winsor, a chemist, and Henry Newton, an artist. The firm was originally located at Henry Newton's home in 38 Rathbone Place in London at a time when it was part of the artists' quarter in which a number of English painters, including Constable, had studios.
The quality of some of its brushes was even praised by Queen Victoria when she called one particular example "the very finest watercolour brush" and she would go on to grant the company its first Royal Warrant in 1841 and it has received the endorsement ever since. Today Winsor & Newton remains by appointment to HRH The Prince of Wales.
The company's paints have even featured in two detective novels - most recently in Michel Bussi's 2011 book "Black Waterlillies" but more prominently in Dorothy Sayer's 1931 tome "Five Red Herrings" where the painting habits of one of the suspects turn out to provide crucial clues  which lead to Lord Peter Wimsey apprehending the real culprit.
Fascinating what you can learn from a little white box with a top hatted spider on it!