1883 Article on the Steel Pen Trade in Britain

[AndyT]

Disclaimer: this is not going to appeal to everyone!  If you have a low tolerance for Victorian prolixity, or no interest in the history and technology of nib manufacture, best give this one a miss.   

Having said that, I found this a fascinating read.  I stumbled upon it whilst researching something completely different, and thought it was worth sharing.  My apologies for the photography: the book was in a delicate state and the light was awful, but at least it's legible.  It seemed best to present the whole article as a downloadable pdf rather than a series of attachments, so here's the link:

1883 Article on Steel Pens.pdf

[schin]

I love it!! What a fascinating read, I did not know that Gillott was related to Mitchell. Considering how many pens were made in his factory, why is it that not many have survived to this day? Did they all disappear into the hands of scrap metal buyers?

In a similar vein I'd like to share a Tour Around the Gillott Factory
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~thegrove/giltour.html

[Blotbot]

The Gillott tour is interesting-- it looks like making these nibs was a woman's job!

[Blotbot]

I like the cat wandering the factory floor in the last illustration.  Nice touch.

[schin]

The Gillott tour is interesting-- it looks like making these nibs was a woman's job!

Ahhh the good ol days when child labor was cheap and women's suffrage just a distant dream.. 

[AndyT]

Considering how many pens were made in his factory, why is it that not many have survived to this day? Did they all disappear into the hands of scrap metal buyers?

Thank you for the link Schin, great stuff.  The pictures provide a bit of a relief from the prose, too.     And it's true what you say even here: there are plenty of nibs around but Gillotts don't turn up so often.  Perry, Hughes, Brandauer and Cameron are the names I see most of ... it's strange.  The Principality class and other very flexible types were mostly for export to the States of course, but Gillott nibs of any sort seem to be thin on the ground.

The Gillott tour is interesting-- it looks like making these nibs was a woman's job!

"... girl workers are employed, whose nimble fingers alone would be equal to the task".  Hmm, that's what they said about the women who worked in the woolen mills around here - nothing to do with the lower rates of pay, of course.

[schin]

I read somewhere that the Gillott Principality was produced for only about 20 years. Doesn't seem to be a popular nib for the europeans, it was made for sale in the US market. Maybe there is a carton of undiscovered Principalities somewhere in Birmingham!

[AndyT]

I read somewhere that the Gillott Principality was produced for only about 20 years. Doesn't seem to be a popular nib for the europeans, it was made for sale in the US market. Maybe there is a carton of undiscovered Principalities somewhere in Birmingham!

Well no, what's good for Madarasz isn't necessarily so good for Bickham, I suppose.  Very much designed for big swells and striking contrasts, and that was never the style in England: probably the big sellers were the turned-up points like the Waverley and the big beak nibs.  When that carton turns up, I'll just post it to you, shall I?   

[schin]

I read somewhere that the Gillott Principality was produced for only about 20 years. Doesn't seem to be a popular nib for the europeans, it was made for sale in the US market. Maybe there is a carton of undiscovered Principalities somewhere in Birmingham!

Well no, what's good for Madarasz isn't necessarily so good for Bickham, I suppose.  Very much designed for big swells and striking contrasts, and that was never the style in England: probably the big sellers were the turned-up points like the Waverley and the big beak nibs.  When that carton turns up, I'll just post it to you, shall I?   

Indeed I bet the europeans thought the showy American style of writing is vulgar ha!
Hey, if you send me a carton of Principalities, you can have my first born and puppy and his first born puppies too..

[Brush My Fennec]

An American publication: The Maine Register and National Calendar for the Year 1843, has an advert in it for the Gillott Principality and describes it as being an entirely new style of pen, therefore perhaps it was introduced in that year. Interestingly it lists the pen as being available in three sizes: medium, fine and extra fine. However by the time of the Penman's Art Journal in the late 19th century, the Principality is referred to as being a "very fine pen" in adverts, so presumably at some point they stopped producing the fine and medium sizes.

From searching the scanned titles on google books, adverts and mentions of the principality (and the 604 E.F also) only seem to appear in stuff published in the United States.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OX0BAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA244&dq=Gillott+Principality&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SQxkU73iI4KMOM38gIgM&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
^

[schin]

An American publication: The Maine Register and National Calendar for the Year 1843, has an advert in it for the Gillott Principality and describes it as being an entirely new style of pen, therefore perhaps it was introduced in that year. Interestingly it lists the pen as being available in three sizes: medium, fine and extra fine. However by the time of the Penman's Art Journal in the late 19th century, the Principality is referred to as being a "very fine pen" in adverts, so presumably at some point they stopped producing the fine and medium sizes.

What a great find! Thanks for sharing. It boggles my mind that they made three sizes of the Principality, wow!

[AndyT]

Indeed I bet the europeans thought the showy American style of writing is vulgar ha!

I'm not sure about that, probably it was rather admired.  Certainly exemplars were printed in European handwriting textbooks, for instance John Jackson's "The Theory and Practice of Handwriting" (London 1898), and Sykes's Manual is in part a repackaging of the Spencerian theory book for the UK market (without a mention of the Spencers - bad form, that).  British business writing during the Victorian period was generally a clerk's best effort at producing something along Bickham's lines at speed, however.

As for vulgarity, if an American engrosser ever produced anything that came close to some of the illuminated neo-Gothic monstrosities made in Victorian England, I've yet to see it.