This commanding magic pencil turned up in yet another online auction:
What attracted me to it was a hallmark that I hadn’t seen for awhile - in fact, I’ve only seen two others, and both of them reside here at the museum.
The story behind that interlocking “DV” hallmark was finally unraveled here in “Time to Get Serious” (July 14, 2021: Volume 7, page 259). The mark was included in Trade-Marks of the Jewelry and Kindred Trades, but in the section dedicated to watches, not pens and pencils. Maurice Ditishiem & Cie (company), the Swiss watchmaking company – that’s the “D” – adopted the mark in connection with the firm’s line of “Vulcain” pocket watches – that was the “V.”
Ditisheim didn’t make pens or pencils bearing this mark; just like Tiffany, Cartier and other high-end retailers, Ditisheim sourced pencils from high-quality makers, marked with the firm’s logo. The other DV-marked pencils in that earlier article were likely made by Hicks, and that’s a reasonable conclusion with this one, as well.
And then, the twist . . .
On arrival, I started playing around with this one to make sure everything was working, and it did something I wasn’t expecting. Magic pencils such as this are usually propel only; twisting the nose advances a simple pushrod which advances the lead, and the lead is held in place by friction.
This one, however, both propels and repels – twisting the nose the opposite direction retracts the lead. When I removed the nose cone, what I found surprised me . . .
All it takes to make a propel-only magic pencil into a propel-repel model is welding on a simple sleeve to receive the lead. It’s a great idea, and I wonder why more Victorian makers didn’t adopt it.
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