Black Sheaffer 400 Mechanical Pencil

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A signature for freedom / József Antall's fountain pen

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A signature for freedom

The Spanish coffin nail

Behind the great moments of history, there are often simple, everyday objects that remain silent witnesses for posterity. One of the precious relics of the Hungarian National Museum is an elegant fountain pen, with which Dr. József Antall, the first freely elected Prime Minister after the regime change, signed the document that finally ended Hungary's relationship with the Warsaw Pact.

🇺🇸 Ringed Eversharp - repair of a broken pen

Ringed Eversharp

repair of a broken Eversharp fountain pen

Some objects we are so attached to that we would give anything to have them repaired. Especially if a gift from our parents or grandparents is damaged. That's not the case here. The Eversharp pen in the picture was recently purchased from me by my client, but two weeks later it broke. The seemingly hopeless situation was resolved. I will detail the repair of the fountain pen below.

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🇺🇸 Handwriting after printing the book

Handwriting after printing the book

 

The inspiration for my short story is the exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. In some of El Greco's paintings, we can see some of the handwriting of the period, and we also have the opportunity to observe the master's handwriting on a page. After seeing the pictures, I wondered how handwriting could have survived in the 15th and 16th centuries after the invention of printing. Surprisingly, it made a big difference!

 

🇺🇸 Would you sell pen?

Vintage fountain and ballpoint pen buying

You can view my own collection of fountain pens in the image galleries on the website. Most of them are family heirlooms, a heritage that I commemorate with this website. I am constantly adding new pieces to the collection.

On this site you will find mainly American-made pens, including Eversharp, Esterbrook and Sheaffer, but also a number of old Parker, Eagle, Wearever, Watermans, Montblanc, Snapfil, Morrison, Penol, Reform. Pelikan and Hoover, as well as Hungarian-made fountain pens. Some items are for sale or exchange. If you have a fountain pen of this brand or similar type for sale, please let me know!

The purchase of a complete fountain pen estate is also possible. Please send me pictures of the fountain pen (nib, cap, internal mechanism) and a short description of its condition (by email). As I have no appraisal qualifications, I cannot judge the value of the pens. I am in favour of the traditional market situation: I expect the seller to quote a price for the pen to be sold. In other words: tell me what you want for the pen.

Pietro Antonio Rotari (1707-1762)
Young girl writing a love letter (1755)

🇺🇸 Exploding fountain pens

Exploding fountain pen

Many newspaper articles appeared in Hungary after 1942 about fountain pens that exploded on contact. These pens were allegedly dropped from aircraft into enemy territory during the war. The latest is an article published in 2012 in Magyar Nemzet, which analyses whether such weapons existed at all. No physical evidence has survived, but there are stories and legends. A collection of newspaper articles on the subject will give the reader an idea of how much propaganda and how much reality the exploding fountain pen was.

 
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