Anyone know what this is?
 

This cup with the lid was in a Kenmore desk(?) holding a 117-95, same as this one

https://www.quiltingboard.com/vbulle...a-t316217.html

circa mid 40s based on the manual and parts list with a stamp on it indicating part numbers were changing in 1947. Anyway, the cup is about 2" in diameter and it was held in the wooden holder in the picture attached to the inside front of a drawer (which is why I think of it as a desk). It has a little lid that slides over to open/close the smaller opening. The desk top was in such bad shape (i.e. beyond my limited woodworking abilities) that it did not survive the screening process on making it into the garage.

An ink holder?

Looks like an old-fashioned ink well.

Yes, it is Kenmore's version of an ink well. Here is a post about the Singer desk cabinet 42 (not all had the ink well) https://www.quiltingboard.com/8037469-post16.html https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...awers-open.jpg
and Singer's by itself https://www.quiltingboard.com/7262465-post3.html

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

I have that cabinet/desk too, with a 201 in it, and it has an ink well.

An ink well...I never would have guessed. Thanks everybody!

My understanding is that these cabinets were used for sewing and then a "writing desk" when closed. I have a 15-91 in that cabinet also but since I don't need a writing desk (actually have an old one) and don't use ink, I use that glass cup to hold straight pins. Love the machine and the cabinet. It was a gift to me from my husband after finding it in a local antique shop with a multitude of attachments in the drawers.

How fascinating that it has an inkwell. I will be on the lookout for something like that in my garage sale wanderings. That is so cool.

What a find! I had a Parker fountain pen for years and I still have a bottle of blue ink in my desk drawer. The ink has probably dried up by now but, if I ever find another Parker fountain pen in working order, I will definitely grab it up.

A ink well for a ink pen.