Founded in 1825 in Birmingham by John and William Mitchell, whose Joseph Gillott will marry the younger sister before launching himself a nib factory. Today's William Mitchell still manufactures an important range of high quality writing tools, together the Gillott (see next section). They are not intended for beginners as their steel is more supple than other makers'. They are called Round Hand, Italic, Poster, Scroll, or the elbow Copperplate, the most famous being Round Hand with their so many sizes in small sizes, square cut and left oblique, used everyday by British professional calligraphers.
