, the #62 and #63 pens.
[Posted on L&P on May 8, 16, 2012.]
In an article in The American Stationer on Sept 26, 1895, p.550, about the 1895 “Cotton States Exposition” in Atlanta, the Waterman’s exhibit is described as comprising of “fountain
pens in gold, silver, and jewel mountings, and there are also several novelties, such as cane and hairpin fountain pens”. Well, there’s another silly idea that didn’t catch on. The Am. Stat. article on Sept 3, 1896, p.393, bemoans the fact that women’s attire has “so little provision for carrying pens”. In other words, their clothing has very few pockets, something that’s true today as well. But this silly pen-notion is just as fashion driven, and requires that a woman’s hair style should never change. She should always have a full, thick, long chevelure done up in a mound on the top of her head in order to hold the pen-pin, or it could be used to pin her hat in place. The pen does, however, have a nice, curved quill-shape that would fit well into the crook of the hand, between the thumb and the index finger. In order for a woman to wear the pen-pin in her hair, she would have to have hair such as this, or this. The pen-pin was even said to be made in two different sizes, the #62 and #63 pens, numbers that were later re-assigned to their lever fillers with slip caps. I wonder what the “cane fountain pen” looked like.
George Kovalenko.
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