Automatic Pens

Mar. 22, 2008 — The full name is automatic shading pen. However, they’re also called automatic pens, auto-pens, and shading pens.

I have several examples of advertising, from the 1890s and later, for these pens. Here’s a small ad for the Stoakes pen, from The American Penman (Sept. 1908):

The earlier pens of this type usually produced shades (automatically) – light and dark areas, and multi-line strokes – but later models sometimes made a single broad stroke only (and so the original meaning of “automatic” was obscured).

Several American calligraphers specialized in automatic pen work. For example, there was Charles A. Faust (born 1860), known as The Automatic Man. Faust was an excellent calligrapher (originally trained as a printer), who sold his own line of automatic pens, special inks for these pens, and related supplies. He also wrote and published books on this topic:

• Compendium of Automatic Pen Lettering & Designs. [Published 1898.]
• Faust’s 75 New Alphabets for Brush, Air Brush, Air Pencil, Relief, Stencil, Marking, Shading, Payzant, Soennecken & Common Pen. [Published c. 1912.]

Automatic shading pens were being manufactured in the 1860s, and perhaps even earlier. I found a box (just an empty box) on eBay for these pens, with a trademark from 1865. Here are some pictures.