Remember your too young,but on the teachers desk on the top was where they put their pencil holder and their little desk calendar,protected the desk from ink spills.
Sorry. Forgot the photo. Had to have it!
Also, it's my understanding that older ink pens (fountain pens) would leak or put a big blob of ink on the tip if you paused or squirted a bit too much. You could dab the end of the pen on the blotter to absorb that ink blob, rather than leaving a blob of ink -or an ink smear from your hand - on your nicely-written document.Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what's a blotter? I've never heard of one, but it definitely does look cool.