Fountain Pens In Movies And Tv

[inkstainedruth]

19 hours ago, welch said:

 

Rush, take a look at the first or second series of "Grantchester", in Masterpiece Mysteries, and tell me if Geordie uses a Parker 51 burgundy to draw a woman's blonde hear away from the back of her neck. She's the murder victim, of course, and memory tells me the pen is in Bloody English Burgundy. Which would be perfect for a murder and that time.

I've seen all of the first couple of seasons, and just finished watching season 3 recently. Don't remember that scene offhand, but there were a couple of times in season 3 where I was trying to figure out what pen Alphy (the current vicar) was using.  Although honestly, I can't really see Geordie being able to afford an expensive pen like a 51 on his salary (even with his wife working).

Of course I also wonder what the guy who wrote the original "Sidney Chambers" mysteries thinks of how the series has morphed from the stories (in the original stories, Sydney marries the German widow from one of the original stories and gets moved up to some job in the Bishop's (IIRC) office in Cambridge after they have a daughter, while Leonard gets his own parish down in London and can write sermons based on Russian literature to his heart's content.  

Of course I ALSO had to laugh at one of the stories because it was titled "Ummagumma" and a minor character is someone who is/was a member of Pink Floyd (and who was out in a field recording ambient sounds in the story, which involves some student getting gored by a bull in some farmer's field).  Always wondered if the guy was someone the author knew personally, or was some sort of "I'll name a character after you if you donate to X charity" thing.  But when I saw the story title, I was going "Huh?" and then when I read the story I wrote to the publisher and said "LOL!  I see what the author did there!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Monophoto]

Wife and I watched a Netflix movie last night that prominently featured pens and writing. It was called 'Wicked Little Letters' and was about an instance in England in the post-WWI period in which someone wrote a series of very nasty letter, and a 'Woman Policy Officer' who disagreed with her male superiors about who the culprit was.  It's a combination of crime story, mystery, and comedy - but with a lot of pretty coarse language.  The pens appear to be fountain pens - I didn't see any ink bottles/pots - but I don't think they are identifiable.  But the overall effect is fun.

[Zinonas]

The fountain pen used by the protagonist in “Wicked little letters” looks a lot like a Mabie Tod Blackbird. They were supposed to be very popular in England at that time. Quite a good movie by the way.

[inkstainedruth]

Currently watching a show I recorded off of PBS about MI-6 and the British Secret Service.  

Shortly into the show, there's a scene of someone using some sort of fountain pen to take notes.  And now they're talking about the original guy running it, who used green ink (thus starting the tradition), and also signing letters with the letter "C" (thus starting the idea of "M" from the James Bond books and movies) -- although the scenes representing the guy (I think his last name was Cummings) show the actor portraying him to be using a dip pen.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[AAAndrew]

On 8/28/2024 at 9:45 PM, inkstainedruth said:

Currently watching a show I recorded off of PBS about MI-6 and the British Secret Service. ... show the actor portraying him to be using a dip pen.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

It's not inconceivable that some were still using dip pens at that time. Certain parts of the public and governmental services used dip pens until well after the war. I even have a short article that says the Bank England was still ordering quills until the 1920s as some were still not willing to give them up. I guess if you learn on a specific type of technology, then that is what you feel comfortable with. Many of us old fogies still prefer to write out whole-sentence emails (let alone paper letters) and talk on the telephone rather than text or Discord. 😄

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, AAAndrew said:

 

It's not inconceivable that some were still using dip pens at that time. Certain parts of the public and governmental services used dip pens until well after the war. I even have a short article that says the Bank England was still ordering quills until the 1920s as some were still not willing to give them up. I guess if you learn on a specific type of technology, then that is what you feel comfortable with. Many of us old fogies still prefer to write out whole-sentence emails (let alone paper letters) and talk on the telephone rather than text or Discord. 😄

Primary schools in NSW were still using dip pens and ink wells on the desks in the late 1950s as did many of the private schools.

 

We started out with pencils and we're not allowed a pen until our handwriting was judged good enough to earn us a pen license. We were allowed  fountain pens as we and time progressed.

[Gloucesterman]

2 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

Primary schools in NSW were still using dip pens and ink wells on the desks in the late 1950s as did many of the private schools.

 

We started out with pencils and we're not allowed a pen until our handwriting was judged good enough to earn us a pen license. We were allowed  fountain pens as we and time progressed.

One other thought to about they might have still been using dip pens...

to use permanent/ iron gall or India ink, perhaps?

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, Gloucesterman said:

One other thought to about they might have still been using dip pens...

to use permanent/ iron gall or India ink, perhaps?

That's true.  I believe the UK still requires wedding certificates be signed with iron gall ink.   WhiIe not relevant to the MI-6/SIS video, I can tell you that I have a government ID card that I signed with the government provided Biro.  My signature faded not long after the card was issued.

[AAAndrew]

It's generally called Registrar's Ink, used to register official births, deaths, weddings, etc... Most modern Registrar's ink works well with both fountain and dip pens. 

[ParramattaPaul]

4 hours ago, AAAndrew said:

. . . generally called Registrar's Ink,

I'm not sure most Americans know  that, so I called it iron gall ink which I suspected is what it is called by most of the Americans on her.

 

There is a a rarely used, small bottle of Registrar's ink sitting on a shelf next to my desk.  I had a specific pen for it, but gave it to a friend years ago.

[jchch1950]

On 9/5/2024 at 2:06 AM, ParramattaPaul said:

Primary schools in NSW were still using dip pens and ink wells on the desks in the late 1950s as did many of the private schools.

 

We started out with pencils and we're not allowed a pen until our handwriting was judged good enough to earn us a pen license. We were allowed  fountain pens as we and time progressed.

In many countries, dip pens were common in the 1950s, especially when you have map reproductions as homework. At that time they would be made with Chinese ink, which some people used to call Indian ink. In the 1960's the school began to allow printed maps that you could buy in some stationary stores and instead of using the time to copy the maps you had to spend it making lines in the few stores that sold them.

[Blue Inked Fingers]

On 9/4/2024 at 8:06 PM, ParramattaPaul said:

Primary schools in NSW were still using dip pens and ink wells on the desks in the late 1950s as did many of the private schools.

 

We started out with pencils and we're not allowed a pen until our handwriting was judged good enough to earn us a pen license. We were allowed  fountain pens as we and time progressed.

They were gone by the late 60s. I started school in Manly in 1968, and we were using pencils - no dip pens, no fountain pens at all.

[Beechwood]

On 9/4/2024 at 6:03 PM, AAAndrew said:

 

It's not inconceivable that some were still using dip pens at that time. Certain parts of the public and governmental services used dip pens until well after the war. I even have a short article that says the Bank England was still ordering quills until the 1920s as some were still not willing to give them up. I guess if you learn on a specific type of technology, then that is what you feel comfortable with. Many of us old fogies still prefer to write out whole-sentence emails (let alone paper letters) and talk on the telephone rather than text or Discord. 😄

 

 

There is a bank in England called Coutts, they deal with the best in society and you need to have millions before they will accept you as a customer. Coutts were formed in 1692 and have a long history of personal attention, they were still producing handwritten statements, in fountain pen and dip pen, well in the 1980s.

[Prof Drew]

For fans of Japanese films, I recently saw an interesting one called 土を喰らう十二ヵ月 (Zen Diary), which might not surprise you to have quite a bit of writing with a fountain pen. The film is a lovely portrait of a few latter years of the writer Tsutomu Mizukami (1919-2004) at his lovely home in rural Nagano Prefecture. A big part of the film is Mizukami's cooking in the style he learned as a young person in a monastery and his living in harmony with nature (chop wood carry water).  The pace fits this kind of life and includes quite a bit about coming to terms with death. You can see a trailer here on YouTube.

 

For the fountain pen fans, we see quite a few scenes of him with a black fountain pen with a lever filler and gold band. I couldn't recognize the pen offhand, although it reminds me a bit of an Ôhashidô (see Chronicas Estilograogicas for more on the pen). There is a screenshot of the pen on this page. There are a few literary museums that save Japanese writers' pens, so I was curious if I could do a quick Google search to see what it was. I did not have any luck, except that one Montblanc fan notes that he used a 146/149.

 

"Zen Diary" is wonderful. It stars Sawada Kenji, who was a singer in a group called The Tigers (mid 60s, along with another fun actor Ittoku Kishibe [who plays Akira in "Doctor X" if you are a fan]). The film is directed by Nakae Yuji, who usually creates wonderful warm comedies about life in Okinawa (like Nabie's Smile). Nakae took a year and a half to film this, so he was able to capture all of Nagano's seasons and amazing wildlife.

[Paul-in-SF]

This is actually from a book, but I thought it was unusually specific. The book is called "The Draycott Murder Mystery" by Molly Thynne, and is a long lost title from the golden age. It was published in 1928. The pen may or may not turn out to be an important clue, found by the hero detective. 

 

"Found anything?" asked Kean.

 

"An old stylographic pen," said Fayre, examining it curiously. "I remember them in my youth. 'Red Dwarfs' I think they used to be called. I wonder how it got there."

 

A little research here on FPN reveals this is probably a pen made by Kearney and Co. in the early 1900s. Apparently a few folks on here have owned one of them. 

[Runnin_Ute]

Watching Hitchcock's The Birds tonight and the Tippi Hedren character Melanie Daniels used what looked like a gray Esterbrook J pen to sign something. 

[inkstainedruth]

In the opening sequence of the new series Brilliant Minds, the lead character, Doctor Wolf (played by Zachary Quinto) is doing some sort of journalling.  Didn't get a good enough look at the pen he's using (so don't know if it was a fountain pen or not) but it did have some sort of design in white on the end of the cap.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Beechwood]

The New Zealand series of The Traitors has the traitors signing the death sentences with what looks like a Sheaffer No Nonsense,