.
Some of the More Spectacular
N I B S
One May See in
One's Lifetime . . .
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NIBbler Links
Portrait Nibs
Dr. Poole
A few of my collection's gems
are these (above) received in trade from Dr. Roberto Morassi (see
list of NIBblers below). In
the following comments, words in ALL CAPITALS indicate those that actually
appear on the above nibs.
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A. Locati, the Italian manufacturer
of the famous BREVETTATO PINOCCHIO nib, kept the puppet's nose to the "grindstone",
as it were. The circular opening, not visible in this scan,
became his eye, with the slit actually continuing past the opening for
better flexibility.
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B. The BREVETTATO No. 4 SERPENTINA
pen's combination of no opening with rolling ribs perpendicular to the
slit gave the writer a very firm touch.
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C. BAIGNOL & FARJON of France
styled this BAIONNETTE (Bayonette) pen after the famous French implement
of war. This unique oblique nib provided right-handers a built-in
writing slant angle of about 72 degrees.
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D. Practically every penmaker in
the 1890's had a pointing finger, it seems. This is ELETTRA's
No.4.
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E. [L.U.S.]'s pointing finger,
the PENNA ASTRA (Star Pen?) No. 700 EF (extra fine), had a cuff on its
sleeve. (LUS is not named on the nib, but Roberto assures me that they
were the maker. He also wrote, "PENNA is a common name meaning
PEN, not a brand name!" Oops! Thanks, Roberto!)
F. and G. More
than one company produced Eiffel Tower nibs, and some companies had even
more than one. [LUS] of Italy had at least these two, their
No. 51 ALCIONE (gilt) and No. 378 EF ANTONELLIANA (steel gray).
Both of
my Portrait Nibs...
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The late Mr.
Philip Pooleof London, England, is generally acknowledged
as the world's unofficial Grand Master Nibbler. "His Nibs" assembled
one of the world's largest collections--if not the largest--over more than
sixty years of collecting. I "met" this amazing octogenarian
when I wrote to him in early 1996. At and from his Great Russell Street
shop inside Cornelissons, just by the British Museum, he sold his
duplicates at modest prices. He was thus the source of hundreds
of my nibs, but this first of those I received from him, the Washington
Pen, was manufactured over a hundred years ago, according to his
record, by W.J. CUMMINS, a small factory in BISHOP AUCKLAND,
England. Visible in the center of the nib is an embossed
portrait of George WASHINGTON.
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For much more on Mr. Poole, click on his name
above.
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For a copy of the current PoolePrice
List, e.mail, write, call, or fax Mr.
John Poole.
I acquired this A. SOMMERVILLE & CO.'S
NO. 2690 EF
SIR
JOSIAH MASON nib from a friend in Maine who collects pen holders. The
honoree's name, WILHELM I, appears under his embossed portrait.
When
I first got this nib, I thought that the companies of Perry--with which
Sir Josiah Mason, Birmingham penmaker, had been affiliated since 1827--and
Sommerville had merged. But according to
John Bunce,
Mason's biographer (1890), in 1852 Mason affiliated with Sommerville as
well, while keeping his affiliation with Perry & Co. And this note
from Roberto Morassi regarding the nib: "The Sommerville catalogue
says: 'Emperor William I pen'; it was produced with point widths
EF, F, M. Price, 2 shillings per box (1 gross), at the time." And
what time was it? According to the list of ninety Penmakers
in Birmingham from 1820 to 1902, Sommerville &
Co. set up business at 64, Frederick Street sometime in 1854 or 1855
and continued there until the 1876-1878 period, after which they fail to
show up on the chart,
likely placing the nib at some 120-140 years
of age.
The above two comprise my entire collection of "portrait" nibs, considered
by many collectors to be the "treasure of treasures" for NIBblers. Mr.
Poole told me in 1998 that he had none left for sale, and to his knowledge,
none had been manufactured for at least the last 70 years or so. And Swedish
collector and pen master Mr. Claes
Lindblad told me that one of the unwritten rules of nib trading is
that portrait nibs may only be traded for other portrait nibs. Other
companies whose names appear on portrait nibs I've seen in pictures include
C. Brandauer & Co., Carl Kuhn & Co., John Heath, Blanzy Poure &
Cie, Hinks Wells & Co., (Asa?) Petit & Co., Brause, Soennecken,
and
M. Turnor & Co.
Ms. Jackie Shoup, another
friend, pen master, and fellow NIBbler (see list of NIBblers
below), sent me color copies of four photographs--taken for use by Air
France on their in-flight menus--of items from the French collection of
Mr.
Lionel Van Cleem. Although I've never communicated
with Mr. Van Cleem, it is clear that his collection is monumental. I have
no idea how it compares to that of Mr. Poole, but from these photos and
the one I've shown above of Mr. Poole's, both are exquisite to say the
least!
Jeremy scanned those four photos
for you. The images are quite large--but very detailed--and
may require from 30 seconds to five minutes each to download, depending
on what computer you have. Click
on either the linked word below or its corresponding "thumbnail" to see
the full-size image.
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| First is an array of some of Van Cleem's more impressive
steel nibs from the second half of the
nineteenth century. |
Next are some outstanding boxes
dating from 1890-1940 on a background of nib samplers. |
Third is an interesting spread of "school children's"
penholders
and nibs with 18th and 19th century manuscripts. |
And rounding out the set is the gorgeous 18th century
Lille porcelain double-well inkstand with
some two dozen intricately designed 19th century dip pens . |
| GROUND
or GROOVED? A Word About Elasticity...
This little discussion may be of interest to copperplate calligraphers.
You of all people know that the art of writing in copperplate, Spencerian,
or any of the similar calligraphic styles requires the use of a nib that
is fairly flexible--that is, the pen's nibs (or, to say it
another way, the nib's tines) separate with a minimum amount of pressure
from the writer's hand in order to create the letters' richer, darker,
broader, heavier downstrokes. Firm to medium points are less desirable,
since they require much more pressure, at best tiring the calligrapher's
hand and arm faster, at worst distorting the letter forms and even tearing
the paper.
Pen makers often went to great lengths to create nibs with greater and
greater elasticity or flexibility for these hands. The trick seemed to
be to get less steel between the writer and the nibs or tines
of the pen. This was basically achieved by one or more of four methods:
(1) using different types and sizes of side slits, (2) cutting different
shapes and sizes of center openings, (3) varying the position of these
slits and openings, and especially (4) grinding
some of the metal away from the top of the nib using a grinding wheel.
It was this last method that was perhaps the most expensive for the
penmaker, who had to hire an extra person (the grinder) and provide an
extra tool (the grinding wheel) for this step. Indeed, major manufactories
had one or more gymnasium-sized rooms filled with grinding tables and staffed
by scores if not hundreds of highly skilled grinders, whose competence
at the wheel would make perhaps the biggest difference in the quality of
the finished product.
Sometime in the early part of the twentieth century, it must have occurred
to someone that the need for the expensive grinder and the wheel could
be abolished completely if grooves or
ribs could be stamped into the point
of the nib (perpendicular to the slit) during the regular stamping process.
This would save the makers money in a day that the fountain pen was fast
coming into its own and steel nibs were clearly on their way out. I believe
that the less-elastic but cheaper-to-make grooved nibs must have been a
last-ditch effort to save the industry.
Apparently many makers made this switch from ground to grooved, including
Eagle, Esterbrook, and even Gillott (this conclusion based on grooved pens
in my collection). Some refused to compromise their quality, however, at
least one company (evidently) even capitalizing on the others' move by
naming their own pens "GROUND POINTS".
So when you're buying vintage nibs for the purpose of doing quality
copperplate, you might want to take a closer look at their points to answer
the question: Are they
ground or grooved?
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"NIBblers"
(my
term for nib collectors) with whom I have exchanged and/or purchased nibs
and other related items--most if not all of whom have contributed significantly
to this site--include:
Ms. Sam Fiorella, NIBbling
owner of Pendemonium,
a most complete antique pen shop in the Washington, D.C., area (e.mail
her for a copy of Pendemonium's catalog);
Mr. Ross Green , penmaster
and owner of Vintage Penpoints, a mail-order supply house
for some eighty different vintage nibs (e.mail him for a copy of Vintage
Penpoint's catalog); he also does related research
which he often shares with Cyberscribes.
Mr. Mike Kecseg of Chicago, master penman;
Mr. Adalberto Mikosz
of Austria, NIBbling researcher;
Dr. Roberto Morassi, Professor
of Chemistry at Italy's University of Firenze, an avid nib collector for
over seven years who has published several
articles
on various aspects of nib collecting;
Mr. Philip Poole , the late and world-renowned
pen collector and shopowner in London, England (click link to go to a special
page in his honor with a connection to the online nib shop still operated
by his sons);
Ms. Jackie Shoup, NIBbling
pen master (see "Van Cleem thumbnails", above);
Mr. Del Tysdal, master penman, researcher,
and historian (click link to go to a special page of articles, etc., by
him (and now Ross Green) on the old masters;
Ms.
Judy Walker, Indiana art teacher, pen master, and NIBbling antiquer;
Mr. Michael Woods, also of London and a longtime collector whom
I met through Mr. Poole; current editor of the Writing
EquipmentSociety Journal, issue No. 55 of which is a tribute to
the life and work of Philip Poole--first Chairman and, latterly, Honorary
President of the Society.
Many of these friends are also members of Cyberscribes
(formerly the Calligraphy Listserve) and/or
I.A.M.P.E.T.H.
(International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of
Handwriting).
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