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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.
There is no doubt that fountain pens will still exist thousands of years from now. This is guaranteed by the fact that this important achievement of our civilization was not left out of the time capsules placed in the first half of the 20th century. But what will the researcher of the future find in this “Noah’s Ark” of objects — if the well-hidden messages can be accessed at all?
There are several common threads between the art of fountain pens and watches: both are precision masterpieces, embody timeless beauty, and represent the pinnacle of human ingenuity. Some luxury brands have combined the tools of writing with the marvels of timekeeping. Let's take a look at pen-watches!
Not long ago I wrote an article titled Stanhope, the Medium Hidden in a Pen, about tiny photographs embedded in pens, glued to a magnifying lens and viewed by holding them up to the light. In this article, I present a Hungarian Stanhope pen through which we can see the past of Herkulesfürdő (Băile Herculane, now in Romania) through a small window on its side.
When cataloguing their fountain pens, many collectors use small pieces of paper, labels, to register important data. This is being replaced by the development of the tompens, using digital labels, NFC tags.
Pairing writing instruments with other devices is a long-known solution. Perhaps the process began with the image-viewing Stanhope devices, which I wrote about here, but a watch was also a common accessory (article here), and there was even a revolver fountain pen (article here). Below, we will discuss a stamp pen with decades of tradition, which is still manufactured today and available as a ballpoint pen, but it has not managed to become popular. Older pieces are quite rare.
Writing has always been an integral part of human culture, and the ways in which people have recorded their thoughts and messages have changed over time. The transmission of ideas was boosted by the advent of the postal service, with the appearance of stamps on letters (1840), which gave rise to the world of stamp art, including mail art as a separate genre (1960). In parallel, fountain pens have followed a similar evolutionary trajectory. I have collected memories of the meeting of stamps and pens.
