One for the Other Wing

The Raleigh Show in June was a blast. I bought a lot, I sold a lot, I laughed a lot. But let’s get back to that first one.

Rob Bader always has fun stuff on hand, and Thursday morning first thing I noticed this one on his table:

It looks at first a little bit like an Eversharp, but it’s bigger . . . and that goofy nose bit is something I haven’t seen before. I had to have it, so I broke rule number one: there’s no manufacturer’s name on it anywhere, just some really nice engine turning on the barrel and a better-than-average crown:

I unscrewed the top finial to reveal a lead storage magazine, partially filled with different colored leads:

Huh . . . I wonder what unscrewing the part below it does . . . 

Dang. Everything comes out, and once it’s out there’s even more:

Once the barrel is unscrewed, two pencil mechanisms drop out of the tube, each with two leads fitted into opposing ends. Wait a tick . . . there’s something written on them . . . salvation from breaking rule number one, perhaps?

Dammit, I broke two rules with this one: it’s not an American pencil, and the imprints don’t help with my first rule violation, either: “Brevetto Citi” is Italian for “Patent applied for” or something close; at least, “Brevetto” means ”patent” (every time I search for the meaning of “Citi” I find myself at Citibank’s website applying for a credit card). 

Still, I would willfully violate both of my self-imposed rules in order to add something this nice and unusual in my collection. But where to put it? I do have a foreign-made wing at the museum, but I hate to see something this nice languish in one of the lowermost drawers of a printer’s cabinet. I know . . . 

Good thing my duck has two arms . . . er, wings (yeah, I know they don’t have fingers, either).

No, I don’t need more ducks.