I know it is not the best time to post about new vintage nibs to try, but I promise they were cheap
As some other european members of the forum have said, I only buy vintage nibs that are actually cheaper than modern ones. And, here is Spain there are not so many moderns nibs available, and shipping costs from America... well, you know. It is quite easy to find here some boxes of french or italian vintage nibs at reasonable prices.
Well, these days, I have some sort of "patriotic nostalgia" or whatever you want to call it. You know I am here quite alone on the calligraphic matters, and there is so much info here about tools and materials but mostly american. I am quite curious about what tools were used here. By the way I love Valliciergo's examplar that has been told in
this other post ).
I never met my great grandfather, but I have seen documents written by him that my grandfather ketp very carefully. He had an interesting penmanship, and I am sure he loved to write. I remember seeing as a child a document with the story of the family. He kept a paper with notes about new borns, weddings, deaths... and it was very interesting to see how each note was done in diferent ink and even the penmanship was changing over time. I also have a beautiful metal inkwell from him, that my grandfather was very proud to give my mother some time ago when she used it to make some illustrations with his old pens. I just have this few items and some stories here and there about how they wrote on those ages. My father used ink and nibs at school when he was a child, but he does not remember so much. So I have been searching and asking him for some info, about what kind of ink they used, what nibs, etc.
I found some items on an spanish auction site and bought it just as curiosities (although I plan on using the nibs!) because they were cheap. Today they came in the mail and I showed them to my father. He automatically were "yesss!!! that was it!!!" and started talking about how the teacher made their ink but did not fill completely their inkwells because they were naughty boys and always ended up covering everithing in ink when the inkwell fell from their desks, and that sort of funny stories. So here you have what I did find:
Some sort of powdered ink. It was meant to mix with water and each packet had just the exact quantity for an inkwell (don't know exactly what quantity that is...). There were several colors. I have blue and violet. My father told me at school they mostly used blue.
A box of Competidora nº 702 Extra Fine nibs. The box says 100 units, but it came with 33. Interesting thing: the nibs have no inscription, but they match the model illustrated on the box. They look exactly as a Perry and co 120EF.
A box of Imsa Perfecta nº 19 nibs. This box says 100 units, but it came with 102 nibs inside. It also says that they are from Barcelona and were made by Industrias Metalicas SA from high quality steel.
If any of you have any more info about spanish materials it would be much apreciated. And also, if any of you are curious to try this nibs I don't mind sharing some for your personal collections
