Markant, Artus, And Optimat From The 50's, 60's ...

[Dickkooty2]

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj157/dick168/P1040118_zps7mfxm78k.jpghttp://http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj157/dick168/P1040118_zps7mfxm78k.jpg

 

I just got these three from a very good source, Yesterday's Fountain Pens . His card is at the bottom of the photo ... nicely done in an envelope with a nib and the envelope has a very nice Pelikan ad stamp. Everything is always nicely packaged and sent quickly. He is no relation and I am very glad to have found him!

 

To the three:

 

1. The Optimat. Really handsome in flecked brown plastic. An eye-dropper, I should have filled it with a darker brown ink. But by the time I got to taking the photo, I was out of energy. Made in Germany for the Dutch Market. Nib is marked OPTIMAT as well. This is a nice addition to a small collection of brown German pens that I sort of accumulated because I like brown German pens. I give myself away, I am afraid. I am not a true collector, just an old guy who likes the look of some stuff. This is why I have 25 brands of black German pens. And 30 metal writing instruments, mostly FEND/NORMA. I didn't have a package, so I am putting it next to a faux alligator Pelikan zipper etui. Close enough for jazz. Speaking of which, Svend Asmusson, the Danish jazz violinist died yesterday at 100. His group in the 50's-60's was the Swe-Danes. Good Stuff.

 

2. The Artus. From after being bought by Hr Lamy. I love packaging and ephemera as indicators of the times. And look at that nib! A pleasure to scrawl about some lazy dog!

 

3. The Markant. That packaging sums up the time. And look at that Fraktur type for Markant! The DDR seems to have kept the previous government's style. The pen is carefully finished with a very nice nib with a bit of flex. And the color appears not only on the barrel and the finial, but inside on the convertor on the twist mechanism and a finial at the top. Without going too far in my suppositions, the color (hard to see with my photography) appears to me to be Gruen/Grau, sometimes called Feld Grau Nr 2. Feld Grau Nr 1 was an omni-present color for a period of time.

 

I have a few nice pieces of Markant ephemera and packaging and would really appreciate any more background readers can provide.

[wastelanded]

Very nice group! I've lost count of how many times I've dealt with yesteryears; always excellent service, and they stand behind their product. I had an issue with a pen I bought there that had a hairline where the ink window meets the barrel: impossible to see, even with a loupe. A refund was immediately offered with shipping, or pay for repair. I chose the latter, and when done was immediately reimbursed. Top notch eBay seller.

 

Edmited fra spellins.

Edited February 14, 2017 by wastelanded

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have a couple somewhat older Artus pens, rounder cap like a Pelikan 140.

I have both gold and steel nibs, both are the old 'true' regular flex. There is no real difference between the gold and steel nibs that I noticed.

At that time I was more into semi-flex than the old regular flex. I like once regular issue....regular flex a lot more now.

 

Most Lamy pens that I know are nails, so Artus not only filled in as a slightly lower pen for Lamy but broadened the nib pallet.

From my understanding Artus pen division had a machine that pressed plastic like the P-51, so Lamy bought it up for that.

I believe Artus still exists manufacturing machines.

[amk]

What a delightful post. I hope you get a lot of fun out of the pens.

 

I spent last year studying Fraktur with my calligraphy teacher - it goes back 400 years or so, but I must admit I thought it had gone out of fashion in the late 1940s. There was also a lovely school of Fraktur penmanship and folk art in Pennsylvania - the style may have lasted longer in the US than it did in Germany.

[Dib]

  On 2/15/2017 at 7:10 PM, Bo Bo Olson said:

From my understanding Artus pen division had a machine that pressed plastic like the P-51, so Lamy bought it up for that.

 

Nice tale.

But Lamy was shareholder of Artus from the beginning.

[Kaweco]

  On 2/18/2017 at 12:55 PM, Dib said:

Nice tale.

But Lamy was shareholder of Artus from the beginning.

Hi Dib

You must forgive him, he has access to the Lambrou Vintage And Modern and you can read the tale there too. But, since the book came on display 28 years ago, some funny guys made some funny new basic inverstigationes.

On the other hand <<I believe Artus still exists manufacturing machines. >> is IMHO fake news.

Kind Regards

Thomas

Edited February 20, 2017 by Kaweco

[Bo Bo Olson]

Sigh....can't believe a thing one reads here on FPN....about Artus. Oh, well if I was always right, I'd be telling Bill Gates what time he has to be at work.

 

I had read he had to do with them pre-war....but thought he 'took over' Artus pen division shortly after the war.

Edited February 24, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[Kaweco]

Hi BoBo

Artus had been a mail order business for fountain pens owned by Kaufmann. It is not known yet since when Artus/ Kaufman had been existing, the first sign we have today dates from 1935. Kaufmann and Lamy had a joint venture possibly since 1937 when they moved from the old Kaweco building in Heidelberg/ Dossenheimer Landstrasse to Heidelberg/ Bahnhofstrasse. A few years later Kaufmann left the cooperation and went to Heidelberg/ Fischmarkt Street. His place at the managing bord had been taken over by Alexander Marossy. Kaufmann moved again before 1945, Artus- mail order company disappeared. Lamy kept the trade mark Artus with its best reputation but he did not buy his first plastic mold injection machines from Kaufmann. The further location of Kaufmann is unknown yet but I surely will work in progress.

We do not know everything too but the knowledge is a little bit more detailled.

Kind Regards

Thomas

[Dickkooty2]

RE the discussions above:

 

This is why I subscribe and donate to FPN. A post with a simple intent to show some nice stuff can develop into a real exchange of information far above this posters' intention!

 

Thank you Kaweko and BoBo and Dib.

[Kaweco]

Hello Dick

Thank you for your comments. Touching upon Markant............I had read the discussion about the writing style in another thread and I think, that some facts need a correction.

quote<<the name Markant means 'outstanding' or 'distinguished>>/quote....IMHO, markant means striking, prominent, clear-cut or edged. and so their characters read: Pointed spiky, angular.

The writing style does not have to do anything with the classic fractur characters.

And fractur characters did not have to do anything with German politics in-between 1933 - 1945. It was just a writing and printing style, nothing else.

The German history during that time went different touching upon this print style: It had been abolished by the nazi Martin Bormann in 1941. http://www.dorsten-unterm-hakenkreuz.de/2012/05/28/die-jahrelang-im-ns-reich-verwendete-gotische-fraktur-schrift-war-plotzlich-%E2%80%9Ejudisch%E2%80%9C-sie-wurde-1941-durch-die-lateinisierte-antiqua-ersetzt/

Actually (!) the nazis prohibited the use of the "German writing style".

The intrinsic roots of this ridiculous episode is unknown. The official nazi comment of the Gothic influenced writing style was that these characters stemmed from jewish letters which surely is not true.

So your speculation. quote<<The DDR seems to have kept the previous government's style.>>/quote has bo basis.

nazi Germany and the goverment of DDR/ GDR had in common that they had been states in totalitarism.

We should exclude the writing style.

Markant is a very good trade mark which could take part in an international competition.

Kind Regards

Thomas

[OMASsimo]

First of all, you've got a few lovely pens and your writing samples show that they have very nice nibs.

 

Second, what you seemingly call Fraktur isn't Fraktur at all. Fraktur was mainly a type set since the 1600s and hardly used for writing. It's based on Gothic manuscripts though. What you see on the Markant box is simplified norm script from the 1950s that mimics typical handwriting of the time. What Thomas alludes to is the older German handwriting called Kurrent, the German version of cursive handwriting for about 400 years. Kurrent had been standardised by a guy named Sütterlin in the early 1900s based on the ubiquitous availability of modern steel nibs. He developed two norm scripts based on the old Kurrent and latin script, respectively. The Kurrent version was abolished by the Nazis (Borman) in 1941. After WW II, neither West nor East Germany revived the use of the old Kurrent script and the new norm scripts were all based on latin lettering.

[Dickkooty2]

Kaweco and OMASsimo ... Thank you for your observations and history! Your taking the time to add your knowledge to this post is exactly what i was babbling on about in one of my own comments above.

 

I do think that an echoing of past visual styles is possible without technical reference to an exact typeface. This is what I see in the Markant logo. I agree that it is very well-done and represents the meaning of the word in German. However, I do feel that 'totalitarian' as an underlying zeitgeist is quite possible. I had a changeover challenge back in the 70s with the switch of the 3M logo from what was called 'Plumber's Gothic' in blue designed by Brooks Stevens to a modified Helvetica in a custom Pantone red designed by Stephen Dunne of Siegle+Gale. A year and a bit on the road selling and implementing in the world-wide subsidiaries

 

It is interesting to note that Der Sturmer did not change its masthead type from spikiness throughout its' publishing run. Die Wehrmacht did and at the type-changeover time referenced. SIGNAL, not published for distribution in Germany, used a modern hand style for its' masthead that was easily readable in many languages. The magazine itself was published in many languages as Germany expanded.

[Bo Bo Olson]

In FEND/NORMA, is from Pfortzheim....and I have some pens that could have been Heidelberg's Herlitz's Luxor pens with a silver overlay, made in Pfortzheim, the German jewelry center. They all seem to have the same clip...just the metal bent at the top to meet the pen overlay. Simple not ornate. Nothing fancy....some have the 835 or 900 on the bend next to the body others have the the hallmark in the middle of the clip.It is the chasing and or barley corn that is ornate.

Two have Palliag (palladium?)1st Qual nibs, one has a Luxor nib with the Herlitz pyramid/ half with lines and an H under, like some Herlitz nibs I have with out the Luxor mark.

 

 

I don't have (can't find) the plain non-detailed picture re-laded from my computer to Imgur after I refused to pay Ransom bucket. (one can see I need to get permission to use professionally photographed pictures had I that to load up again.

and one 14 K barley corn one. It has a 14 K 'Bison' nib, made by G. Rau Pforzheim.

The picture I took from the live auction house when I bought the pen.

I got it cheap....or cheaper in it needs a new cork.......I had expected it to go way out of my price range. Very few dealers there were interested in fountain pens that day. I often match or beat German Ebay prices there. German Ebay is cheaper than US Ebay.

 

I have a Fend Safety Pen 18KR (rolled gold) overlay, made in Milan, with a slightly different name..Fendograph. It has a warranted 14 Ct nib that is probably English, in Ct was the mark for carat in the English marking C and K for American and German. It is superflex, I would have to dig up my two Wet Noodle pens.. to check to see if it's a wet noodle or the stage lower what I call Easy Full Flex.

In Penboard.de makes much better pictures than I could ever do, I asked permission and was given it.....did that for the nib of my Geha 725 also.

I like the cap's finial.....I don't believe how many years it took for me to find out that name instead of cap jewel...even if no jewel.

Fountainble repaired the hell out of that pen for me. He machined the guts new, (it's good he's an engineer with machinery available) in some one had just glued the broken parts together. He is the inventor of the Conid pen.

 

I was a bit stupid, when I unscrewed that pen at the live auction house, there was no nib!!!

Instant lesson, it screwed up from the bottom. It was another type of pen I never thought to own. Don't remember if I paid E120 or 150....but I got over.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[Dickkooty2]

Bo Bo,

 

Great stuff! And Tom Westreich does a great job with Penboard.de!

 

Wonderful examples of writing instruments as part of the jewelers' art. The finial and design on the clip are beautifully done.

 

My Fends are the more utilitarian multi-colors or straight-leg pens for gift giving. The Fend-Normas are particularly nice with the Fend variations on the basic patent.