Very First Fountain Pen

[Vintagepens]

The bone pen may well not be a fountain pen or even a pen at all; it might be a stylus, instead. Picture is on the left side of the site noted. Direct link to image here. Bone would not be a suitable material for a fountain pen, in any event.

 

Looking at the website, it states only that the "pen" is from Trgovište. It does not state it is from the church, and it seems more likely in fact that it comes from one of the "64 houses uncovered at the medieval Trgovište" mentioned in the text, a settlement that would appear to date to the 14th-15th centuries, though no terminus post quem is mentioned so we could be looking at a date later yet.

 

I would not look to the Islamic world for any connection to the pens Bion described. By then, and long since, technological leadership had shifted to the West. There is no indication of the one tenth-century pen being anything more than a one-off plaything.

 

No puzzle about the relative lack of surviving medieval pens. They were utilitarian objects and perishable. Ancient Egyptian examples were preserved as grave goods, of the sort that one doesn't see after the advent of Islam. If any do survive, it's also likely that little attention would be paid to them by archeologists, who are always falling behind it getting excavations written up and published, and who pay the least attention to the bits and pieces that are neither useful for dating nor very interesting aesthetically.

[penguina]

The bone pen may well not be a fountain pen or even a pen at all; it might be a stylus, instead. Picture is on the left side of the site noted. Direct link to image here. Bone would not be a suitable material for a fountain pen, in any event.

 

Looking at the website, it states only that the "pen" is from Trgovište. It does not state it is from the church, and it seems more likely in fact that it comes from one of the "64 houses uncovered at the medieval Trgovište" mentioned in the text, a settlement that would appear to date to the 14th-15th centuries, though no terminus post quem is mentioned so we could be looking at a date later yet.

 

This could be the case.

 

However....just one or two more things:

 

Firstly: yes, this could be a 14-15 century stylus, or more likely a parchment pricker to help the Medieval Illuminator set out his parchment for writing and drawing.

 

Yet by the end of the eleventh century, most bone implements were made on lathes...which gave them an easily recognizible "machine like appearence.

 

But this might be a home made parchment pricker. It is possible.

 

The problem with it being a stlyus, is that the head is wrong here. The bone stylus mostly had a smooth rounded, which was to used as an eraser for the wax on the writing tablets.

 

But...yet again it could be an eccentric stylus.

 

One reason that this stylus may have had ane early date, is becuase it was the Romans who mostly used the stylus. The Romanians did and do) consider themselves to be the heirs of the ancient Romans. In fact, if you talk to Romanins even today, they will tell you that they ARE the ancient Romans, who just were transplanted to a different country (Hence the name Romans/Romanians). Hence, this stylus could have been Roman, or just post Roman of the 4-6 century.

 

So, the possiblity still exists that this was an eccentric earlier or later (hand made) stylus, or a later handmade parchment pricker.

 

But, given all of the above. What still intrigues me, is that this object looks like it was made of a rounded, maybe even hollow bone. This would be odd indeed for a stylus, or parchment pricker.

 

As I said, I don't know what this is. But find rhis object rather intrigueing.

 

Would love to have a look at it before I dismiss it. Just curious, I guess.

 

 

I would not look to the Islamic world for any connection to the pens Bion described. By then, and long since, technological leadership had shifted to the West. There is no indication of the one tenth-century pen being anything more than a one-off plaything.

 

No puzzle about the relative lack of surviving medieval pens. They were utilitarian objects and perishable. Ancient Egyptian examples were preserved as grave goods, of the sort that one doesn't see after the advent of Islam. If any do survive, it's also likely that little attention would be paid to them by archeologists, who are always falling behind it getting excavations written up and published, and who pay the least attention to the bits and pieces that are neither useful for dating nor very interesting aesthetically.

 

The tenth century fountain pen a plaything? We do not know this!No evedence seems to be here either for its demise or continuation. So it is impossible to make this assertion.

 

But why are you so quick to dismiss the Moslem world here? Do you have any evidence here?

 

The reed pens of the Isalmic world were tough, not like the soft bamboo pen of the east, or the reed pens and quills from the West.

 

In the Middle East, only one kind of reed was chosen, from near Egypt, and that had to be cured in horse dung for years. Thier reed were strong! Also, the pen cases ( Qalamdan) where they kept these pens were sturdy works of art. These well made cases would have kept these pens for many hundreds of years. Any lost pen cases would kept these well made pens as well as any ancient Eygptian tomb.... Paticularly, if they were lost or discarded. Even if these pens were discarded after a while...it is strange that none survive.

 

Also, pens most probably metal) were givin as state gifts by the Western world, France at least gave at least one pen as a state presents to an Islamic diplomat from the Middle East. This pen dates from the time of Loius VX and Nicolas Bion's son, and was described as having a diamond attached to the the end of it.

 

Still say that it is strange that no pens have turned up in the Middle East, either of Middle Eastern make, or from Western gifts. I wonder why, when so much effort was made to preserve the pen cases. Could this have a cultural reason?

 

 

And having studied a little archeology myself, and have known a few archeologists in my time, I can say that these experts are thorough and methodical proffessionals. They gather everything possible from a dig, even if it is just an imprint taken from the earth around long decayed items.

 

Archeologists find and categorise everything to help them understand the lives of people from the past. They use the most utilitarian of objects just as much (or even more than ) the most aesthetic item that can yeild up little of it's former use and owner.

 

As a person trained in history myself ( now turned artist) I can say that history is full of unexpected surprise.

 

Such as the common office stapler being invented as a Royal instrument for King LOius XV

 

And the ancient Egyptians who had such wonderful tombs? But history is mysertious. Who would have thought these Ancient Eyptiain also had the first slot machines, or that they opened the massive doors of their temples by remote control, using the steam engines that they had invented, "Crying Open sesame!(or the like).

 

Or that the The Indians of about 5000 BC, wrote the Kumbhadbawa Agastyamuni which gives a detailed description of how to make a battery to make electrical current to create a light. called Mitra (Mitra)

 

History is full of surprises. As you well know it is full of hoaxes too. Both intentional and unintentional.

 

I would just like to see the item, just to check it.

Edited March 29, 2011 by penguina

[teej47]

The bone pen may well not be a fountain pen or even a pen at all; it might be a stylus, instead. Picture is on the left side of the site noted. Direct link to image here. Bone would not be a suitable material for a fountain pen, in any event.

 

Perspective is such a funny thing. We look at such an item and see a pen (as, indeed, the writer of the article did). My Grandmother would look at it and see an obvious knitting needle. I wouldn't be at all surprised if "pin" isn't more accurate than "pen". This item was far more likely to have been made by and for someone who was illiterate than to have been used for any kind of writing. A stylus, after all, is just a slender pointy thing. Slender pointy things have all sorts of uses.

(It's really cool looking though, isn't it?)

 

Tim

[Radhika]

The bone pen may well not be a fountain pen or even a pen at all; it might be a stylus, instead. Picture is on the left side of the site noted. Direct link to image here. Bone would not be a suitable material for a fountain pen, in any event.

 

Looking at the website, it states only that the "pen" is from Trgovište. It does not state it is from the church, and it seems more likely in fact that it comes from one of the "64 houses uncovered at the medieval Trgovište" mentioned in the text, a settlement that would appear to date to the 14th-15th centuries, though no terminus post quem is mentioned so we could be looking at a date later yet.

 

I would not look to the Islamic world for any connection to the pens Bion described. By then, and long since, technological leadership had shifted to the West. There is no indication of the one tenth-century pen being anything more than a one-off plaything.

 

No puzzle about the relative lack of surviving medieval pens. They were utilitarian objects and perishable. Ancient Egyptian examples were preserved as grave goods, of the sort that one doesn't see after the advent of Islam. If any do survive, it's also likely that little attention would be paid to them by archeologists, who are always falling behind it getting excavations written up and published, and who pay the least attention to the bits and pieces that are neither useful for dating nor very interesting aesthetically.

 

I definitely wouldn't give me dollar for that though.

[Bugg]

In the 1900s...

 

A Ford cost about 800 dollars.

A bottle of coke cost five cents.

A film-ticket cost five cents (hence the term 'nickelodeon').

A cheap pocket-watch cost about $1.

A good pocketwatch cost about $30.

 

I believe a decent fountain pen cost about $3 (give or take a bit).

 

As for wages, I'm not sure.

 

 

By about 1915 a price of a Ford dropped from the eight-hundreds to the three-hundreds. He also started paying workers around five-dollars an hour which was roughly twice the norm, and thus spawned the term "Fordism." This was before a 40-hour a week and a federal minimum wage.

Edited April 2, 2011 by Bugg

[jslallar]

Hi Everybody

 

A nice article on pen history, short but nearly covers all th major points there.

 

http://fountainpenwali9.blogspot.com/

 

Regards

 

Junaid

[Scrawler]

Hi

 

Contrary to popular belief, Waterman did not invent the fountain pen. That was invented a thousand years ago, by the Egyptians of the time. The following information is from wikipedia:

 

"The earliest historical record of a reservoir pen dates back to the 10th century. In 953, Ma'ād al-Mu'izz, the caliph of Egypt, demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen which held ink in a reservoir and delivered it to the nib, and could be held upside-down without leaking, as recorded by Qadi al-Nu'man al-Tamimi (d. 974) in his Kitab al-Majalis wa 'l-musayardt. No details of the construction or mechanism of operation of this pen are known and no examples have survived.

 

One thousand years ago, the unknown inventor said:

 

"We wish to construct a pen which can be used for writing without having recourse to an ink-holder and whose ink will be contained inside it. A person can fill it with ink and write whatever he likes. The writer can put it in his sleeve or anywhere he wishes and it will not stain nor will any drop of ink leak out of it. The ink will flow only when there is an intention to write. We are unaware of anyone previously ever constructing (a pen such as this) and an indication of ‘penetrating wisdom’ to whoever contemplates it and realises its exact significance and purpose’. I exclaimed, ‘Is this possible?’ He replied, ‘It is possible if God so wills'."

 

Great defination of a fountain pen!

 

from Bosworth, C. E. (Autumn 1981). "A Mediaeval Islamic Prototype of the Fountain Pen?". Journal of Semitic Studies XXVl (i).

 

and found on Wikipedia article on fountain pen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_pen.

 

Fountain pens have been around for a long time.

It is recorded that he demanded, but it is not recorded that his demands were met. The wishes of a person does not equate to the realization of that wish. I have not yet seen any contemporaneous drawing of this item, and so far have no reason to believe it was actually invented until the late 1800's.

[welch]

In the 1900s...

 

A Ford cost about 800 dollars.

A bottle of coke cost five cents.

A film-ticket cost five cents (hence the term 'nickelodeon').

A cheap pocket-watch cost about $1.

A good pocketwatch cost about $30.

 

I believe a decent fountain pen cost about $3 (give or take a bit).

 

As for wages, I'm not sure.

 

 

By about 1915 a price of a Ford dropped from the eight-hundreds to the three-hundreds. He also started paying workers around five-dollars an hour which was roughly twice the norm, and thus spawned the term "Fordism." This was before a 40-hour a week and a federal minimum wage.

 

I'm pretty sure that Henry Ford paid $5 a day...not an hour. Just a quibble, though, and anybody who talks about "Fordism" gets the Tony Gramsci award! A measurement, perhaps, of the quality of life: selling mass-production automobiles at a price that mass-production workers might afford.

[penguina]

 

It is recorded that he demanded, but it is not recorded that his demands were met. The wishes of a person does not equate to the realization of that wish. I have not yet seen any contemporaneous drawing of this item, and so far have no reason to believe it was actually invented until the late 1800's.

 

Well, the actual fountain pen belonging to the early Imam has not survived. But here's a good description of the realization of the Caliph's wish:

 

"The modern convenience of fountain pens with their own ink-supply is also an invention of much greater antiquity. In an early tenth century Arabic manuscript entitled Kitab al-Mjalis wal Musa’irat (the book of Assemblies and Discussions), written between 969 and 975 AD by al Qadi al Nu’man Ibn Muhammad, the chief judge of the caliph Mu’izz, who established the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt in 969 AD, leaves no doubt that the Caliph refers to a true fountain pen:

 

The Egyptian scholar, Hassan El-Basha Mahmoud, in 1951, first noticed this and translated it:

 

When Mu’izz mentioned the pen he described its merits and regarded it as the symbol of the secret of knowledge; he then said he would like to make a pen which would write without the need of an ink-pot.

 

Such a pen, said the Caliph, would be self –supplying and have the ink inside. One could write what one wanted with it but as soon as one relinquished it the ink would disappear and the pen would become dry. The writer could keep such a pen in his sleeve without fearing any mark or filtration of the ink for the ink would filter only when the pen wrote. It would certainly be a wonderful instrument and one without precedent.

 

In a few days the craftsman to whom the pen had been described brought a model made of gold. After filling it with ink, he was able to write with it. But as more ink came out than was needed, the craftsman was ordered to alter it. Finally the pen was brought back repaired. It was turned over in the hand and tilted in all directions and no ink appeared. But as soon as he took it and began to write, he wrote the best hand for as long as he wished and when he took the pen away from the paper the ink vanished. Thus I beheld a wonderful work the like of which I had never thought to see.”

From: http://islamic-arts.org/2011/understanding-islamic-metal-technology/

 

Hope that the link works. Sounds like a beautiful pen.

[Scrawler]

 

It is recorded that he demanded, but it is not recorded that his demands were met. The wishes of a person does not equate to the realization of that wish. I have not yet seen any contemporaneous drawing of this item, and so far have no reason to believe it was actually invented until the late 1800's.

 

Well, the actual fountain pen belonging to the early Imam has not survived. But here's a good description of the realization of the Caliph's wish:

 

"The modern convenience of fountain pens with their own ink-supply is also an invention of much greater antiquity. In an early tenth century Arabic manuscript entitled Kitab al-Mjalis wal Musa’irat (the book of Assemblies and Discussions), written between 969 and 975 AD by al Qadi al Nu’man Ibn Muhammad, the chief judge of the caliph Mu’izz, who established the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt in 969 AD, leaves no doubt that the Caliph refers to a true fountain pen:

 

The Egyptian scholar, Hassan El-Basha Mahmoud, in 1951, first noticed this and translated it:

 

When Mu’izz mentioned the pen he described its merits and regarded it as the symbol of the secret of knowledge; he then said he would like to make a pen which would write without the need of an ink-pot.

 

Such a pen, said the Caliph, would be self –supplying and have the ink inside. One could write what one wanted with it but as soon as one relinquished it the ink would disappear and the pen would become dry. The writer could keep such a pen in his sleeve without fearing any mark or filtration of the ink for the ink would filter only when the pen wrote. It would certainly be a wonderful instrument and one without precedent.

 

In a few days the craftsman to whom the pen had been described brought a model made of gold. After filling it with ink, he was able to write with it. But as more ink came out than was needed, the craftsman was ordered to alter it. Finally the pen was brought back repaired. It was turned over in the hand and tilted in all directions and no ink appeared. But as soon as he took it and began to write, he wrote the best hand for as long as he wished and when he took the pen away from the paper the ink vanished. Thus I beheld a wonderful work the like of which I had never thought to see.”

From: http://islamic-arts.org/2011/understanding-islamic-metal-technology/

 

Hope that the link works. Sounds like a beautiful pen.

It sure does sound beautiful. I was unaware of any description of anything other than a wish list. It is a shame that this item did not survive, or has not yet been rediscovered. I imagine that it would not have been a plain functional object, but in the manner of artistic creations from that time and place, is likely to have been heavily engraved. I have read this wishlist for a pen many times in the past, and have tried to imagine what materials would have been used for the component parts and the mechanisms. Knowing what I do about pens now, if I were suddenly transported back in time and presented with this wishlist, I would certainly have had to use at least two different alloys of gold, one for the body and a different one for the nib. The feed mechanism, given the materials at that time and place would have been an interesting problem, and I might consider some sort of leather. If I had a suitable workshop, I would like to try to reproduce this item, because of the fascination I have had for a long time with that description and the technological challenge the craftsman was faced with.

[bluemoon]

Why are they called "fountain" pens. Surely "reservoir" pens would be more accurate. They never produce a fountain unless you squirt the plunger mechanism when you are cleaning them. However, I decided to look in The Shorter Oxford Dictionary under fountain, and in sense 4, it states: "Fountain - A reservoir or compartment for holding oil, ink, etc., in a printing press …". So it seems to have originated in the printing industry. Any further comment would be appreciated.

 

John

I would love to find a plunger mechanism in an eyedropper while cleaning them.

[penguina]

 

It is recorded that he demanded, but it is not recorded that his demands were met. The wishes of a person does not equate to the realization of that wish. I have not yet seen any contemporaneous drawing of this item, and so far have no reason to believe it was actually invented until the late 1800's.

Well, the actual fountain pen belonging to the early Imam has not survived. But here's a good description of the realization of the Caliph's wish:

 

"The modern convenience of fountain pens with their own ink-supply is also an invention of much greater antiquity. In an early tenth century Arabic manuscript entitled Kitab al-Mjalis wal Musa’irat (the book of Assemblies and Discussions), written between 969 and 975 AD by al Qadi al Nu’man Ibn Muhammad, the chief judge of the caliph Mu’izz, who established the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt in 969 AD, leaves no doubt that the Caliph refers to a true fountain pen:

 

The Egyptian scholar, Hassan El-Basha Mahmoud, in 1951, first noticed this and translated it:

 

When Mu’izz mentioned the pen he described its merits and regarded it as the symbol of the secret of knowledge; he then said he would like to make a pen which would write without the need of an ink-pot.

 

Such a pen, said the Caliph, would be self –supplying and have the ink inside. One could write what one wanted with it but as soon as one relinquished it the ink would disappear and the pen would become dry. The writer could keep such a pen in his sleeve without fearing any mark or filtration of the ink for the ink would filter only when the pen wrote. It would certainly be a wonderful instrument and one without precedent.

 

In a few days the craftsman to whom the pen had been described brought a model made of gold. After filling it with ink, he was able to write with it. But as more ink came out than was needed, the craftsman was ordered to alter it. Finally the pen was brought back repaired. It was turned over in the hand and tilted in all directions and no ink appeared. But as soon as he took it and began to write, he wrote the best hand for as long as he wished and when he took the pen away from the paper the ink vanished. Thus I beheld a wonderful work the like of which I had never thought to see.”

From: http://islamic-arts.org/2011/understanding-islamic-metal-technology/

 

Hope that the link works. Sounds like a beautiful pen.

It sure does sound beautiful. I was unaware of any description of anything other than a wish list. It is a shame that this item did not survive, or has not yet been rediscovered. I imagine that it would not have been a plain functional object, but in the manner of artistic creations from that time and place, is likely to have been heavily engraved. I have read this wishlist for a pen many times in the past, and have tried to imagine what materials would have been used for the component parts and the mechanisms. Knowing what I do about pens now, if I were suddenly transported back in time and presented with this wishlist, I would certainly have had to use at least two different alloys of gold, one for the body and a different one for the nib. The feed mechanism, given the materials at that time and place would have been an interesting problem, and I might consider some sort of leather. If I had a suitable workshop, I would like to try to reproduce this item, because of the fascination I have had for a long time with that description and the technological challenge the craftsman was faced with.

 

To thoughtfully recreate such a pen! How wonderful that would be!

 

Would love to know if you ever do this. What a project.

Edited May 19, 2011 by penguina