Special nibs with holder

Originally intended for technical drawing, the ruling pen has been diverted towards creative calligraphy by some brilliant German artists of the fifties, until success and excitement leads to create new sorts of tools after them.

Two folded nickel-silver blades facing eachother and having their edge in contact so that it makes a very thin horizontal line while it offers some flexibility, that's the idea of some Mr. Boxall in the 1920's. The handle was then of black laquered wood which became plain natural wood a little later when the company changed hands to some Mr. Dupont, who called it Automatic Lettering Pens. When he passed away a rep at Parker company named David Ford went on, changing the handles to a military shade plastic thus making the old models much more desirable for collectors.
The blade system is still more or less the same today, offering the largest strokes together with the narrowest lines with its 13 different designs and sizes. The edge has to be put slits upwards on support at an angle of 45° for classical styles of writing, after charging ink or watercolour with a brush through the sides openings. Mixing colours is part of the fun. Perfect for occidental and hebraic calligraphy but not arabic. It's a delicate and fragile product, to be used on smooth surfaces only. Wash gently under water and dry the blades with a blotter.

Harry L. Coit registered in 1928 this brass folded nib hiding a corrugated reservoir, intended for American shopkeepers to write elegantly their sale prices on fruits and vegetable (we bought the original leaflet at auction in 1989). More recently Arthur Baker launched a calligraphers' craze about this system in his "step-by-step" books published by Dover. The fact is that the Coit pen is stronger than the Boxall (so-called Automatic Pen) so that Hebraïc scribes often prefer it; it also allows going upwards, but its horizontal stroke is not so thin because of the folded metal. Anyway it's a very inyeresting and rare tool with 20 different sizes and shapes.
Or should we say it was? The maker seems to have vanished.

The "Witch pen" is a special tool invented by William Mitchell in the thirties; its metal nib is astutely designed to be cut and folded in one single part, mounted on a plain wood old fashioned holder. There are five sizes from 1.5 mm to 6 mm. Made in Great Britain

One of the last tools created for Western calligraphy. From the same designer we also offer a large brass ruling pen, a folded ruling pen, and an interesting oblique penholder. See them in "Various" and Accessories section