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.

Mar. 15, 2008 — What was the most complex broad-nibbed pen ever invented? Perhaps it’s the one shown below, created and sold by Friedrich Soennecken in the 1870s (and later).

This pen had six interchangeable nibs, of different widths and styles, which were inserted in the pen staff, two or three at a time. It could make a huge number of stroke variations, depending on the configuration. Soennecken’s book shows some of these variations, noting that “144 different double strokes, and 504 different triple strokes, can be written.” Each nib could be loaded with a different color ink, and the blank areas of the letters could be filled in later, or left empty.

Soennecken called this pen “The Writing-Instrument” and it wasn’t very big: the total length from tip of nib, to end of pen staff, was exactly 15 cm. (just under 6 inches). “Breveté S.G.D.G.” refers to a French patent, and on the staff is stamped “F. Soennecken – Bonn – Patent”.

Calligraphers used this pen to letter the headings of engrossed documents, for creating small signs, and so forth. It could also be used to make elegant, multi-line borders.

These illustrations are from the 1877 edition of Soennecken’s Methodical Text Book to Round Writing, published by Keuffel & Esser (New York and Chicago).