Louis Navetel Vidal (1831-1892) was quite remarkable French sculptor, especially so since he was completely blind by the time he was 22. (Would you care to sculpt a lion by running your hands ALL over the animal? Vidal did.) Quite apart from fierce animal figures, Vidal created a sideline of art nouveau pewter inkwells. They were so popular that someone began counterfeiting them to allow late Victorians to look au courant at half the cost.
The work at hand is one of those imitations. It's a 3 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 7 inch pewter inkwell featuring a nymph in a pond with cattails and other aquatic plants. Vidal's original looks a lot like it but is more finely modeled and doesn't feature "streaks" in the nymph's hair and most of the foliage. The signature on real Vidal inkwells is more fluid and the castings are usually cleaner, too.
Real Vidal inkwells (even without the ceramic well inserts which are nearly always missing) are moderately pricey. Antique knock-offs like this one are still inexpensive.
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