Automatic Shading Pens

Mar. 25, 2008 — There seems to be some confusion about when the automatic pens were first made, and the real reason for their name, so here’s some more info.

Automatic shading pens were being manufactured in the 1860s. See trademark date, shown here.

The Stoakes automatic pens were patented in 1880. (Thanks to Ginger Meidel for mentioning this.) I found an advertisement from August 1912, in The American Penman, that also points to circa 1880, as the date when Stoakes pens were first made. This ad is by the Newton Automatic Shading Pen Co., Pontiac, Michigan. Here’s some of what it says:

Over 50 different sizes and styles of Marking, Shading, Plain, Special and Border Pens for all practical Show Card Work, Lettering, Etc. — Accurate lettering is easily and rapidly done with our reliable Automatic Pens and Inks. They are the product of over THIRTY YEARS experimenting along this line, and combine the desirable features of the ORIGINAL “J. W. STOAKES” pens and the “FAUST” pens, both of which are now manufactured by us.

The word “automatic” in the name originally signified that shades, light and dark areas, and multi-line strokes, were all produced automatically — with single strokes. Later on, however, models that produced broad, even strokes only, were also called “automatic” pens, since they were basically the same pens (except for the marks they made).

Regarding the old story that “Victorians only used pointed pens,” we know that amateur calligraphers (Edward Johnston and others) in late 19th-century England were quite mixed-up about the modern history of broad-edged pens. They imagined (as some people still think today) that the “secret” of broad-edged nibs had been lost to history.

The truth, however, is that high-quality, broad-edged steel pen nibs were readily available in America, and in Europe, beginning in the 1870s.

Friedrich Soennecken began marketing his beautiful broad-edged nibs here in the late 1870s. Gillott, Mitchell, and other manufacturers followed soon after, with their own broad nibs. We know this is true, since there’s so much direct evidence: advertising, writing manuals, patents, and so forth.

Earlier in the 19th century, before broad-edged steel nibs came on the scene, broad-edged quill pens – mainly goose and turkey quills – were absolutely standard issue, for engrossers and their students. This is well documented in writing manuals. (It’s also common sense.)

By the 1880s, in the U.S., most professional calligraphers, and their numerous students, were using broad-edged steel pen nibs, for the styles that required them. Even rank amateurs, among the general public, used these broad-edged writing implements, to some extent, for lettering simple signs, addressing packages, etc.

But some professional scribes never abandoned broad quill pens at all. For example, William E. Dennis (1860-1924), one of America’s greatest calligraphers, used broad quills throughout his long career. You can even see pictures of some of them today, on the web.

Of course Dennis also used steel nibs, brushes, automatic pens, and many other calligraphy tools — whatever was best for the job at hand.