21, The Fasces & The Swastika,

June 3, 2010

Don't worry, both of these trademarks were from a period well before these symbols took on their more sinister connotations and became stigmatized. It's like the co-opting of the word "gay". You can't use the word to merely mean happy any more, not without a lot of bracketed explanation, or footnoting. All the other uses of these words and symbols have been severely curtailed to historic mention rather than use. Trademark no. 21,916, E. R. Oettinger & Co., "Steel And Other Pens", Nov 1, 1892, used since Mar 1, 1889, is for an image of the seated female figure Lady Liberty holding a fasces in one hand and the tiller of a rudder in the other. Trademark no. 52,888, Payot, Upham & Co., "Steel Pens", May 22, 1906, used since May 8, 1905, is for an image of a scimitar and a swastika. There are also the Parker #52 and #53 fountain pens with either sterling-silver, or gold-filled swastika overlays that were first advertised in Parker's in-house magazine Side Talks in January 1910.

George Kovalenko.

If you want to perform the trademark searches, simply cut and paste, or type the trademark numbers into the search window in the Trademark Document Retrieval Portlet.

June 3, 2010

crickets. Maybe it is the "favorite" part. No comment.

June 3, 2010

You're right, it's a matter of "favorites". I was torn about marking them as some of my "least favorites", the same as I did with the type-writer segment in this series, but these precede the later, tainted uses of these symbols. It's also a matter of mention, not use.

George Kovalenko.

Edited June 3, 2010 by rhr

June 3, 2010

Ahem .... I wouldn't say the word gay had sinister connotations, was stigmatised or was anything like the swastika. Seriously. Some of us are a bit sensitive about stuff like that. Consider this a footnote.

John

Edited June 3, 2010 by encremental

June 3, 2010

I knew that it was going to be a sensitive issue, and that it was a problematic pairing of examples, but I didn't mean to say that the word "gay" had sinister connotations, or was stigmatized, or anything like that. I only meant to say, and this is the only similarity, that it's one of those words that's been co-opted for another use, and can't be used for its original meaning without a lot of tagged-on explanation, which is what we're doing now. The new use of the word has almost completely displaced the old usage.

Footnote added. ;~)

George Kovalenko.

June 4, 2010

Not so long ago on UK TV, there was an old man and his wife talking about some kind of construction in their town. "it's a magnificent erection" said the old man. His wife realised the modern association and her eyes twinkled at the thought =)))) it was so funny!

For me the Swastika has a different association because half my family is from India.

Gay for me only has a positive association either way!

It's like the word in Dutch for happy and lucky are the one and the same. Gelukkig. How do you say I'm happy to be lucky then? or I'm lucky to be happy. Mind bending.

June 4, 2010

in Dutch it isn't the same, we do have different words for happy and lucky, happy = vrolijk, and lucky = gelukkig.

Edited June 4, 2010 by Gub

June 4, 2010

in Dutch it isn't the same, we do have different words for happy and lucky, happy = vrolijk, and lucky = gelukkig.

ah but can't you say "ik ben gelukkig dat u..."

I am happy that you....

and "het is gelukkig dat" it is lucky that....

Vrolijk I forgot about though =)

I associate it with frolick!

January 16, 2017

This is my first post, I've been watching in the wings for a while and like the tone of this forum.

I wonder if the collective wisdom of the FPN community could guide me on this one. I was looking for a French nib and found this (attached) which I purchased and which certainly looks French.

Did a French brand of pen have this fasces symbol on the nib? Or was it the symbol of a nib maker rather than a pen maker? From which period is it?

Any light that could be shed on this obscurity would be much appreciated.