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1.  Section One is a brief, chronological HISTORY of pen manufacturing by countries as I have learned it.  Some of the companies listed have links to their own pages.    If you have historical information which may be of interest to our readers, please don't hesitate to e.mail me.

2.  Tough QUESTION: Makers, Distributors, or Advertisers?

3.  Information SOURCES

4.  Related LINKS

ENGLAND: Although one can find mention of metal pens in the histories of ancient Israel, (Egypt?), Greece, and Rome, as well as in medieval (and later) Europe and colonial and early America, Mr. John Mitchell is generally acknowledged as the first to manufacture steel nibs--i.e., by machine. His factory in Birmingham, England, "the first manufacturing town in the world," began production in 1822.   His brother Mr. William Mitchell soon joined him in this venture, and eventually each had his own company. ^{1, 2}

Other early successful English makers included Mr. James Perry, whose London factory produced briefly in the mid 1820's until he met Mr. Josiah Mason (later knighted Sir Josiah Mason), whom Perry commissioned to manufacture all of the latter's nibs--under the Perry name--in Birmingham in 1827, becoming the largest manufacturer in the world by mid century and selling out to Perry in 1875 ² (Mason later founded the school--Mason Scientific College, 1880--which would become the University of Birmingham); Mr. Joseph Gillott, who learned the trade from the Mitchell brothers (and married their younger sister!);

[an aside: I posed the question, "How does one correctly pronounce 'Gillott'?" to the worldwide membership of Cyberscribes (formerly the Calligraphy Listserve) and got basically three different answers, including (1) /jihLOT/ (as in Gillette), (2) /GHILLut/ (as in the first two syllables of guillotine), and (3) /zhiLOH/ (as in "sees ya low" without the "see").  No one seemed to really know, however, until Ross Green said he'd talked to a knowledgeable party in London who had corrected his first pronunciation with the second (above).  So until we find out further, the second is correct.

Aha: a fourth arises, (4) /JILL ut/, based on the following:

From: "Jeremy Fry" <jermyfry@btinternet.com>
Date: Wed Jul 12, 2006  11:59:04 AM US/Mountain
To: <jmcdgwin@zianet.com>
Subject: Joseph Gillott

Hello. A retired dentist friend can't remember the name of a client whose family manufactured pen nibs. We both live in Birmingham. So I have been searching the web to find names and found your fascinating site. I noted your query re the pronunciation of GILLOTT. My paternal grandmother lived in GILLOTT ROAD, Edgbaston, Birmingham. It is about two miles from where Gillott's manufactory was sited. The houses are late mid-Victorian/early Edwardian and so fit the time frame for commemorating someone. Locally it was and is pronounced /JILL ut/, Jill as in Jack and ut as in butter. I am not sure whether this is helpful or even relevant, but I thought I would mention it. Now back to pen nibs. Regards, Jeremy]

AUSTRIA: England was the world's sole manufacturer and supplier of steel pens until 1843 when Mr. Carl Kuhn of Vienna opened his factory there, becoming the first to produce steel pens on the continent. Other Austrian nib producers included Salcher and HIRO (recently--1996?--absorbed by Leonardt of Birmingham)⁵.

FRANCE: At about the same time, Mssrs. Pierre Blanzy and Eugene Poure, tired of importing British pens to their native France, started their Blanzy-Poure & Cie factory at Boulogne sur Mer in 1846, Blanzy having "apprenticed" in Birmingham. Baignol and Farjon was another early large French manufacturer, as was Companie Francse. Bunce (1890) says that by 1865 there were six or seven manufactories in France, but by 1885 that number had dropped to three.

GERMANY:Heintze & Blanckertz, Soennecken, and Brause & Co. were three German makers. I have little data on any of them, but Bunce says that there were "two in Germany" in 1866 (two of these?),yet that by 1885 there was "only one, and its make, though improved in quality, is very inconsiderable in comparison with the large consumption of steel pens in Germany."² Aha! A new NIBbling friend in Austria recently shared that the Heintz & Blanckertz company was founded in1856in Berlin, according to an H&B advertising card he has. (Thanks, Adalberto!).  Germany was, then, a nib producing country even before the United States.

UNITED STATES: Another Birmingham manufacturer, Mr. Richard Esterbrook², saw the untapped American market, opened the first American pen factory in Camden, New Jersey, in 1858, and soon was rivaling Gillott, Perry, and Mitchell in weekly production.

Bunce (1890) says that in 1885 in the United States "there are now four pen works, but of these only one is of importance."² The one, of course, was E'brook. Who were the other three? And were there others of which Bunce did not know? Research is uncovering evidence that two of them may have been Turner & Harrison of Philadelphia and Miller Brothers Cutlery of Connecticut.

Another of the three may have been the Eagle Pencil Company of New York, certainly a pen maker, although when they started making pens, I'm not sure.   However, there's an interesting photo and other data inside on their page which perhaps reveals that they may nothave manufactured pens until 1900.

In Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. John Holland had been producing his famous gold-nibbed fountain pens since about 1862; nevertheless, steel pens were not one of his products, so he would not have been one of Bunce's four.

Beginning in 1885 there was, however, a small Cincinnati steel pen manufacturer of whom Bunce might have known; Harry L. Braham, a jeweler in the city, patented a specially reservoired series of nibs which he manufactured and sold for fifteen years, going out of business in 1910.⁷

The relative latecomer Mr. C. Howard Hunt certainly was not one of them, as he did not open for business until 1899.   Like Esterbrook, Hunt also started out in Camden, New Jersey, the company later moving to Philadelphia (headquarters) and Statesville, NC, (factory).    Celebrating their centennial last year, the Hunt Manufacturing Co. is still producing pens--and many other products--today.

ITALY:Pastori became the first Italian maker in 1898, then Ruspi, Presbitero, Locati, and Legnani joined its ranks this century⁴. Dr. Roberto Morassi has been researching pen production in Italy in recent years. I'll be posting summaries of some of that research here later.

SCOTLAND:MacNiven and Cameron of Edinburgh,with roots in the mid 1700's, commissioned Gillott et al to make their pens until 1900 when they bought a factory and  began manufacture of their own nibs in Birmingham, England. Check out this link for an interesting communication!

BELGIUM:Belgian nibs manufacturer "Floreffe": "Manufacture Belge de Plumes Métalliques" (Belgian metallic pens manufacture) was founded in 1907 by the Baron Joseph de Dordolot and stopped production in 1929.  That was the only one manufacturer in Belgium, but not the only dealer with their own stamp and own boxes.   (This info on Belgium as sent to me by a friend and new NIBbler, Pascal Fantazian; e.mail questions directly  to him:  pascal.fantazian@skynet.be).

OTHERS:Russiaalso made a go at it, says Bunce (1890), where "the duty on steel pens is high, but after existing one or two years, the manufactory was burnt down, and no attempt has been made to rebuild it." ^{2 (}But was one built after 1890?) Perhaps Japan(Toyo Seiko?) became a pen-producing country as well⁶. I also have nibs with respective Portuguese, Swedish, and Swiss marks--but were these locally made, or imported from other countries? For example, I also have a George Hughes (Britain) nib with an Arabic inscription on it. I asked my Muslim neighbor what it said, and he read, "George Hughes."

At the height of its glory, the nib was manufactured world-wide at the rate of millions every hour.

Makers, Distributors, or Advertisers?

I.  Nevertheless, the number of actual manufacturerswas relatively few, compared to the number of companies whose names appear on the nibs and their boxes.⁵ Of course, this often makes it very difficult to tell if the company named was really a manufacturer, a distributor (agent), or simply an advertiser.

II.  Some companies, such as Spencerian Pens of New York, Birmingham Pens of Boston, and W.L. Mason & Co., Inc., of Keene, NH, had complete lines of pens carrying only their names and sold in beautiful boxes, but they served as wholesalers ordistributors only (known in Italy as the "Marchisti")⁴, commissioning others to manufacture for them. (Of the three listed here, Spencerian pens were made in Birmingham by Sir Josiah Mason for Perry & Co., and W.L. Mason pens were made in France.)

III.   And countless other companies and organizations--such as Bank of England, the City of Cincinnati, Bell Telephone, United Drug Co. (Rexall), Boston Public Schools, Milton Bradley, Troy Laundry Machinery, and New York Central and Santa Fe Railroads, to name a very few--bought pens with their own names stamped thereon as advertising, even though their businesses most often had nothing whatsoever to do with pens.

The manufacturers of some category II and III pens are known, however--some by sleuthing, some by accidental discovery.  As we find out others, they'll be added below as well.
 

Sources:

1. Bore, Henry, The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens: A Contribution Towards a History of Writing Instruments Ancient and Modern, Perry & Co., Ltd., London, 1892.

2. Bunce, John Thackray, Josiah Mason, A Biography, with Sketches of the History of the Steel Pen and Electro-plating Trades, W & R Chambers, Limited, London and Edinburgh, 1890.

3. Hopkins, Eric, Birmingham: The First Manufacturing Town in theWorld 1760-1840, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London,1989.

4. Morassi, Roberto, "Le Varianti Della Lancia" ("Variations on the Lancia Nib"), PENNA, 1996.

5. Poole, Philip, and Michael Woods, letters to John Gwin, 1996-1998.

6. Ephemera and other miscellany:  company advertising, boxes, tins, inserts, brochures, articles, photographs, the nibs themselves, etc., much of which has been sent in by such nibbling friends as Ms. Sam Fiorella, Mr. Ross Green, Mr. Adalberto Mikosz, Mr. Phillip Poole, Ms. Jackie Shoup, Ms. Judy Walker, Mr, Michael Woods, and others.

7.  Williams, Williams Cincinnati City Directories, 1895-1910; quoted to me by Mr. Steve Wright, archivist,  Cincinnati Historical Society Library, Business Archives
 

1. A Brief History of the Fountain Pen

2. Industry in Birmingham (c. 1850-1914)

3.  From Del Tysdal and Ross Green:  Old Letters /Articles Re: Famous  American Penmen

4.  Homepage of Bill Lilly, pen master, Zanerian graduate--handmade oblique holders

5.  History of Gold Nib Making   by L. Michael Fultz

6.  Cynthia's Compilation of hundreds of links related to calligraphy and writing equipment

7.  John Holland Gold Pen Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio--a history of the company--this link
takes you to the Cincinnati Historical Society Library's Business Archive section

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