The inkwell and the paperweight are part of a writing service that also includes two perfume cups and two candlesticks. The decoration is made with a technique typical of Russian high craftsmanship which consisted in obtaining thin sheets from malachite blocks which, subsequently, exploiting the particular shades and the different designs of the veins, were applied, like the tesserae of a mosaic, on bases in stone or metal. The final effect was that of an object apparently made of a single piece of malachite, because the joints between the various elements were hidden thanks to a special process that used tiny fragments of malachite mixed in a green colored mixture. Particularly precious results were then obtained by combining the malachite with gilded bronze elements, which create a pleasant contrast with the green color of the stone. In addition to the decoration of entire rooms, such as the famous Malachite Room of the Winter Palace, malachite was widely used in the production of sumptuous furnishings. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, tables, vases, candelabra, clocks and inkwells of extraordinary workmanship came out of the workshops of Peterhof and Ekaterinburg, which, offered as a gift by the tsars to foreign sovereigns, helped to spread admiration for this type throughout Europe. of objects.