The inkwell has a 9 1/2 by 14 1/4" marble base, scroll and paw feet, lion, brass inkwell cover, glass well within, and a "JOHN H. TUNSTALL/LINCOLN COUNTY/N.M.T." marked plaque. It is accompanied by two framed printed portraits of John H. Tunstall (1853-1878), and four framed Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, driver's receipts relating to Tunstall's business in 1881. By then Tunstall had been dead for a few years. Tunstall had been born and raised in England. His father had business interests in Canada, and Tunstall moved to British Columbia in 1872 and then to the New Mexico Territory in 1876 where he partnered with Alexander McSween and John Chisum and competed with the established businesses of James Dolan and Lawrence Murphy who were also allied with the local lawmen. The murder of Tunstall sparked the Lincoln County War. When he was shot down, one of his employees was William Bonney, soon to be known around the country as the outlaw Billy the Kid, and Bonney and others participated in the cycle of violence that followed.