Amongst the late works of Wittgenstein collected and published after his death there is a short note on the inkwell. This remark, to be found in “Last writings on the philosophy of psychology Vol.2: The inner and the outer” and is worth quoting (the translation) in full;
“To be sure we can little by little enumerate the properties of an inkwell, but its essence – mustn’t it stand fast once and for all, isn’t it presented to us with this very object, before our eyes? What we have in front of us surely isn’t the ‘use of a word’! Certainly not; but the concept ‘inkwell’, which is necessary here after all, is not tangibly in front of us, nor does what is in front of us contain this concept. In order to represent it, it is not enough to put an inkwell in someone’s hand. And this is not because that person is too lame-brained to read the concept off the object.” [MS173 p64e]
There is in this remark something for history (as a field of knowledge production) to be deeply concerned with; the inkwell itself.
The Think and The Thing 