The Artist is Revealed!

Matt McColm emailed me the other day – we’ve kept in touch during my brief sabbatical that has turned into a slightly longer sabbatical, then turned into two books and taking over the editorship of The Pennant (the Pen Collectors of America’s journal). I’ve missed posting articles here, so much that I’ve often forced myself to refrain from picking it up again, because I know once I get started again, I’m not going to want to stop.

My other projects haven’t stopped me from picking away with various little research projects, putting together a little piece here, a tidbit of information there, tucking everything away into a "I’m going to do an article about that" pile that has gotten to be pretty intimidating. It’s hard to know where to start at this point with all the wonderful things I have found to share with you.

Matt’s recent email was the loud and clear indication of where I needed to start: with this story. He reports that while on vacation in Skagway, Alaska, he found another example of a pencil I’ve come to refer to as "Sigma" pencils, and he referenced an article I posted here on November 9, 2012. Remember this one?

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 3, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.

A funny thing happened on the way back to the blog . . .

When I went on break last October, I didn't really go on break.  I stopped posting here so that I could crank out a book on Writing Instrument Patents, because I was getting tired spending so much time rooting around for patents.  In December, I wrapped that up and introduced American Writing Instrument Patents 1799-1910 at the Philly show in January.

And so, one might reasonably asked, why didn't I get off my lazy butt and get back to this in January?

Because my own book was driving me nuts.  It stopped too early.

So while the snow flew and there wasn't much to do over the winter in Ohio, I wrote a second patent book.  This one covers 1911 to 1945.  Because so many more patents were issued during that time frame, in order to pack everything into this book I had to make it longer (376 pages), use fewer full page patent drawings (25 this time) and even shrink the text a bit to 9 point type.

The second volume follows the same format as Volume 1, with one improvement – the categories in the Patents by Description section are much more specific.  For example, nothing is identified just as a “fountain pen,” but by the specific  type of pen – lever fill, sleeve fill, etc.   Mechanical pencils are also broken down by screw drive, repeater, sliders and more.   An illustrated glossary at the beginning of the book explains how things are categorized.

I'm told the books will be ready in time for Raleigh on May 29, 2014.  To order, email me at jveley@jonathanveley.com.

The Patent Book has arrived!

Thanks to a terrific pre-holiday effort by my friends at Greyden Press, I pulled into my driveway just a couple hours ago with a truckload full of copies of my new book, American Writing Instrument Patents 1799-1910:

We built this book to withstand years of everyday use, with a heavy-duty PVC coil binding and heavy stock paper.  I also designed it to be easy to use -- taking a cue from the legal books I frequently use, the book has tabs to make it a breeze navigating around the different sections:

The book is 348 pages long, and peppered throughout are reproductions of many interesting patent drawings:

The book opens with a short history of the development of the patent system in the United States, an article on what a "Writing Instrument" is (you'd be surprised how many inventions do everything a fountain pen or pencil does but aren't meant for "writing"), a glossary of terms and a guide to using the book.  Here's a couple pages from the history article:

The heart of the book, of course, is the tables of patent data.  For ease of reading, I set the typeface in 10-point Constantina.  This made for precious little space between the columns and narrow margins, but in the end, this proved the best way to pack a lot of information into the smallest possible space:

To break things up, I gave 75 of the most significant patents full-page treatment, with a reproduction of the full patent drawing page and a short summary explaining what makes it important, interesting or just plain goofy.  These are shown in chronological order, beginning with the earliest writing instrument patent for which a drawing survives (James Bogardus' pencil patent of 1833). Here's the page featuring Roy Conklin's first patent:

Of course, no book covering nineteenth-century pen patents would be complete without Lewis E. Waterman's patents:

But the book goes further -- explaining why the first patent Waterman applied for wasn't the first one to be granted! 

At the end of the book, there's an index to guide you through the illustrations.  George Parker's name came up quite a few times:

I'm officially launching the book at the Philadelphia Pen Show on the weekend of January 17, 2014.  If you are going to attend the show and want to avoid shipping charges, you can send me a Paypal for $39.99 and I'll have it there for you.  For those who won't be attending the show (or can't wait until then for a copy), you can order the book through my website, http://www.jonathanveley.com/books.  International buyers, please contact me first so we can get the shipping charges right.  

Coming soon . . .

Things have been pretty quiet here at the blog for awhile, but not without good reason.  No, there haven't been any bodily injuries or illnesses, and no, I haven't run out of things to talk about (to the contrary, I've got a lot of new stories bottled up inside just bustin' to get out).

Truth be told, I was researching the October 1 article when things went horribly wrong.  The patent databases just weren't cooperating, and nothing I was doing was turning up the patent that I just knew was supposed to be there.  Not even George Kovalenko's book could help me, since the patent in my crosshairs was from around 1880 and George's book starts with patents issued in 1911.

I was frustrated, annoyed and sheepish all at once.  I decided that someone needed to write a book about patents issued before 1911 so that I wouldn't spend so much time rooting around for these things when I need them, once and for all.

And I decided it might as well be me.

A couple days before the end of September I forced myself to put Leadhead's out of my mind and focus exclusively on writing just such a book.  I wanted it to be both usable and readable, so I wrote articles on general American patent history, on how to research patents and on how the words our Victorian predecessors used have evolved into the terms we use for pens, pencils and pieces today.   I even included an article on how I decided what to include and not to include in the book (question:  is a machine used to stripe tennis courts a "writing instrument"?).

And then I pulled together a massive amount of information together.  I started by going through every patent issued from the patent office opened in 1790 through 1910 in Category 401, weeding out the things that weren't pens, pencils or some other writing instrument as I went.   Then I went back through the blog here and pulled out all the patents that weren't in category 401, such as patents for clips, coatings or other integral parts of writing instruments).  Then I followed up in those categories to pull out a lot of the really obscure stuff.

The hardest part, however, was figuring out how to present the data so that it would be more than just a list.  I decided to create a massive spreadsheet, then resort the list in different ways so that the database is searchable by different criteria.  Here's the back cover:

The thumb tabs will make zeroing in on the right patent faster than I believe has ever been possible before. However, even though this provides a massive amount of information, the 250-page list that was just about as much fun to read as a telephone book.

So, to add a few spoonfuls of sugar, I pulled out 85 of what I considered to be the most historically significant patents of the era (with the occasional irresistably goofy ones) and added full-page illustrations of the patent drawings from each, accompanied by a few short paragraphs to explain why they were as important.  Here's an example:

That's a 1907 patent for a pen that's a dead ringer for a Conklin Nozac.  Who knew?

The last step, however, was the most important -- trial by fire in the field.  The Ohio Pen Show was this last weekend, and I had a copy of what I hoped would be the final draft of the book printed off in a 3-ring binder.  Joe Nemecek spent some time at Leadhead's Spread before and after the show, and we went through some examples he had on hand to make sure all the patents he knew of were in there, and they were.  Then, off to the show for four days of looking at obscure patent dates imprinted on barrels in the wild. I'm pleased to report that without exception -- every patent date I found imprinted on a pen or barrel and looked up in the book was right where it was supposed to be.

So today, with my beta tests complete, the finished project has been emailed to my publisher.  I'm told that the book will be ready in December, so I'm planning a formal launch at the 2014 Philadelphia Pen Show (for anyone that can't wait for Philly or isn't planning to go, yes I will make advance copies available).  The cover price will be $39.99, but through the Philadelphia show I'll offer it for $35 (plus shipping, if needed).

And yes, in answer to the question I've been asked quite a bit lately -- I'll be back with new stories soon.  When?  Well, today I cleaned off the kitchen table, so for the first time in weeks it isn't covered with notes, bits of paper, reference books and my laptop:  that will make Janet a happy woman.  But she still has a long list of deferred projects awaiting me for the day I wasn't up until midnight every night working away on this project, so after I get through all that, I'll take a few deep breaths and maybe a nap . . .

then I'll be back.  I've already got the first few articles written in my head.

Like a Ninja

Collectors of pens and pencils all know the excitement of finding truly quality pieces at general antique shows.  Usually, when a dealer says “yes, I have some pencils,” what they offer up might be a couple rusty Scriptos or a bag of wooden golf pencils – all of which must have tasted delicious to whoever was chewing on them.

Last Saturday at the Springfield (Ohio) Extravaganza, imagine my surprise to find a dealer with a Conklin Nozac pen, an Eversharp Skyline pen in silver moire and a few other goodies at his outdoor booth.  The pens were in great shape, but the dealer knew what he had and wanted what I would consider to be the high end of reasonable (as my friend Rob Bader likes to say, “That is a fair price -- I’m looking for an unfair price”).

We went back and forth for a few minutes – he didn’t want to take much less because he’d just put them out, I didn’t want to pay so much . . . hem, haw, hem, haw . . . finally, I started looking around the rest of his booth to find a couple other things to throw in that might make a deal make some sense.  With the addition of three other bits of what he considered junk, we struck a deal.

No, I’m not posting pictures here of the Skyline or the Nozac, for two reasons.  First, they are pens.  Second, you’ve seen those before.  The real headline of the deal turned out to be one of the bits of junk I persuaded the guy to include in the deal:

What attracted me to this one was that goofy dip pen nib, which obviously has absolutely nothing to do with the holder it’s been stuck in.  I’ve got a disorganized mess of dip pen nibs I’ll go through someday, but I was confident that among them I didn’t have a “Jordonian No. 6 Oblique Pen”:

I know, I know . . . it’s a pen, so I shouldn’t be posting pictures of this, either.  But I had to show you this one (ok, I wanted to show you this one) because it explains why I hadn’t paid much attention to the “holder” into which it was wedged.

This one went into my pocket along with all the other treasures I was finding that day.  After we got home, I started sorting through all the neat stuff I’d found and when I came to this one, as I was pulling the nib out to clean it up, I noticed something:

That crescent-shaped slot is where the dip pen nib is inserted, but I hadn’t noticed that round hole in the middle.  Usually, that’s an indication that this isn’t just a dip pen holder, but a pen and pencil combination.  

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 2, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.

Truth in Advertising

When this one popped up in an online auction, I thought the seller was confused and posted the wrong pictures with the pencil:

That’s a Cross, I thought to myself.  But yet there was something a little weird about it; I wondered why the top was silver instead of black.  Here’s the online find shown next to a typical Cross Century ballpoint:

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 2, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.

Better Than The Real Deal

The Springfield Antique Show in Springfield, Ohio is a monthly affair, and most of the time, it’s a lot like most other antique shows.  But a couple times a year, the show takes a big dose of steroids and turns into a monstrous, 2,000-plus dealer, indoor/outdoor, four-day affair called the “Extravaganza.”  It’s impossible to see everything in one day, so Janet and I have taken to getting a room over in Springfield and spending Saturday and Sunday browsing at a more leisurely pace.   Janet swears it’s all me stressing about whether we get to see everything, but secretly, I believe she can’t help but wonder what she might have missed, too.

We try to do all of the outdoor stuff first, because we never know when the Ohio weather will stop cooperating and besides, the indoor dealers are there every month – it’s the outdoor vendors you’ll typically see only on Extravaganza weekends.

Sunday morning, while we were browsing around outside, a big breakfast and a few belts of coffee caught up with us, so we ventured inside one of the main buildings to answer nature’s call.  Of course, it’s nearly impossible to walk down an aisle full of antiques without stopping to look at anything, and of course, the first vendor inside the door was someone I see every month and buy something from every month.

Usually it’s nothing spectacular she has for me – maybe a couple cheaper pencils in colors I don’t have or a few dip pen nibs that look just interesting enough to shell out a buck or two.  This time, I saw a great box marked “Zaner-Bloser” on the side, about half full of erasers, lead and ballpoint refills.  Since Zaner Bloser is a Columbus, Ohio company, I couldn’t resist.

But there was a problem.  The dealer wanted $12.00 firm for the box, I’d spent all my small bills and the dealer couldn’t break a fifty.  She said she’d hold it for me while I went to break a larger bill.  Just as I was about to leave her booth, I noticed this laying nonchalantly out in front, separate and apart from where she usually keeps her pen and pencil stuff:

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 2, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.