Poirot, Sad Cypress Episode, Wahl Doric

[Pepin]

I spotted Poirot writing with a Wahl Doric near the end of this episode. Aren't these like super rare and not available in England? How could someone with detective salary afford such a fine writing instrument?

[limesally]

I spotted Poirot writing with a Wahl Doric near the end of this episode. Aren't these like super rare and not available in England? How could someone with detective salary afford such a fine writing instrument?

 

Maybe he got them from a grateful client? anyway, he's a private detective - he mentions several times to prospective clients that his fees are quite high (in the books, if not the show) and in many other respects he is described as having refined tastes.

 

It's cool you identified something - he is often using a fountain pen in many of the episodes and I don't know enough about vintage pens to even guess what they could be.

Edited July 27, 2010 by limesally

[Chris Chalmers]

You mean like this one????

 

http://dxlab.ky1v.com/zzz/OS-Doric_03.jpg

 

Mine came from Sarj in England some time last year I think! Great nib! Must ink it up again..........a lovely vintage pen to hold and use.

Enjoy!

Funnily enough the Poirot series are being shown here in Oz on satellite TV - so I'm always trying to identify pens - thanks for solving this one!!!

[QuantumMisa]

I spotted Poirot writing with a Wahl Doric near the end of this episode. Aren't these like super rare and not available in England? How could someone with detective salary afford such a fine writing instrument?

 

Maybe he got them from a grateful client? anyway, he's a private detective - he mentions several times to prospective clients that his fees are quite high (in the books, if not the show) and in many other respects he is described as having refined tastes.

 

 

I seem to remember his remark in one of the novels that he has plenty of money, which allows him to work on only the cases he feels like taking up...or am I confusing him with some other detective...

 

After finding FPN, I've kept an eye out for FPs in movies, but they rarely show up in the films we watch. The movie we saw the other day even mentioned how people don't use FPs anymore.

[ihimlen]

Quite interestingly and contrary to the popular belief, Wahl-Eversharp pens...were available in England - there was a Wahl-Eversharp boutique located at 197 Great Portland Street in central London. What is more, Eversharp even (reportedly) had a small factory here in UK (or at least subcontracted pen production) and there they made a couple of other models for British market only :-)

 

So not everything was imported direct from States, though I suppose it was actually quite easy to get a Doric here in London those days...even if it might not have been cheap!

 

BTW, it would really be great to see the still from that episode

 

 

i.

 

EDIT:

 

Ah, just realised - W-E also had a boutique in France, at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées...so there was a way to get yourself an pen Eversharp here in Europe!

Edited July 27, 2010 by ihimlen

[vickiehof]

Poirot is a perfectionist, rather vain and is always impeccably groomed. I saw an episode last Sunday that showed his extensive (expensive ?) grooming items neatly lined up in his tent at an archaeological dig in Syria. He seems to have enough money so that solving crimes can be an enjoyable exercise for "the little grey cells" rather than his main source of income. I think he would have owned the best quality and most tasteful example of a fountain pen. David Suchet is my favorite portrayer of Poirot.

[Pepin]

Chris, this is the right pen, but his has very fancy mottled color.

 

You mean like this one????

 

http://dxlab.ky1v.com/zzz/OS-Doric_03.jpg

 

Mine came from Sarj in England some time last year I think! Great nib! Must ink it up again..........a lovely vintage pen to hold and use.

Enjoy!

Funnily enough the Poirot series are being shown here in Oz on satellite TV - so I'm always trying to identify pens - thanks for solving this one!!!

[nigelg]

Perhaps there are a couple of implications from this. David Suchet or another cast or production team member is a collector. Maybe the script adaptors/writers knew exactly what they wanted to convey on screen. Either way someone there appears to know something about FP's. Either that or the props department don't know what treasures they have in the store room.

I can see it now:

Director (exasperated). "Oh this is hopeless, can someone get Poirot a pen. No dear, not a biro, what year is it?. And not in black, think of the lighting. Ah yes, a mottled Wahl Doric. Thats more like it. Places everybody"

Cue grams.........

 

Nigel

[wekiva98]

The costuming and art direction on these Poirots with David Suchet has always been beautiful but it also suits the character. Poirot is impossibly well-dressed and his apartment is an art deco wonderland -- worthy of Architectural Digest in the 1930s. It only makes sense that he would carry an elegant, art deco fountain pen to write with.