Sometimes, you really can find stuff that you never expect to find, stuff that you never even thought would exist.
I picked this up from a local jewelry dealer while browsing my local flea-market. It’s not much, and nor did it cost that much, either. I mean, it’s only two-and-a-half inches long, after all, and not even high-grade gold…but it is gold!
Yep. The mark on the shaft is there for all the world to see: “9ct”, for 9ct gold…or 37.5% purity.
With its loopy handle, twisted shaft, and spearpoint tip, you’d probably never mistake something like this, or of this size, to be anything else. I’d never really thought about buying, owning, and having added to my collection – a solid gold toothpick – but now that I’d seen one – why not? I mean, how many people even know these things exist, or indeed, what they are?
A History of Gold Toothpicks
It may surprise you, but gold toothpicks aren’t nearly as uncommon as you might think.
Back in the 1700s and 1800s, they used to be quite common – and were one of several types of luxury accessories or pieces of jewelry that were carried around, by both men, and women.
Most gold toothpicks were of the retractable type – similar to a sliding, retractable pencil. The shaft of the toothpick was affixed to the inside of a gold (or silver, if you couldn’t afford gold) cylindrical sleeve. When not in use, the toothpick was retracted, and hung on a gold chain or necklace. When it was required, the toothpick was slid out of its sleeve, exposing the shaft and the familiar spear-point tip. Once used, the toothpick was wiped down, and slid back inside its sleeve for safekeeping.
Of course, open models, without a sliding metal sleeve, also existed – that’s what I have!
Toothpicks like this in gold and silver were very common in the 1700s and 1800s, and even into the early 1900s. In an age when dental hygiene was not what it perhaps could be…(eurgh!)…using a toothpick to scrape the gunk and stuck food off of your teeth was one way to at least try and keep them clean. That, and it avoided the awkward situation of talking to someone when you’ve got a chunk of something jammed between two teeth…which is uncomfortable at the best of times, let alone unsightly.
Carrying Your Toothpick
Such toothpicks became so common that there was actually a surprisingly good trade being done not only in toothpicks, but also in toothpick cases! Numerous Victorian and Georgian-era examples exist made of everything from solid gold to ivory, bone, tortoiseshell and sterling silver. Some of these boxes, which are typically long, flat and rectangular, even came with built-in mirrors underneath the lid (like a lipstick case!) so that the owner could hold it up to their mouth and uh…ahem…make sure that they were hitting all the right spots.
Victorian-era concerns over dental hygiene meant that it was common for people to carry toothpicks around with them when they went out for a meal. The sooner you could deal with that chunk of toast stuck in your teeth, or that sliver of roast pork, the more easily you could clean your teeth properly, later…that, and it’s not very nice to spend an evening out while also wearing the remnants of dinner on your teeth – if people want to know what you ate, they should ask you, not look at you.
To carry one’s toothpick, it was either suspended on a gold or silver chain in a manner similar to a pendant necklace, or else was stored in one of those aforementioned toothpick cases. If the former (which was common for women) then it would be hung around the neck as a piece of jewelry. If the latter, then either stored in one’s handbag, or kept in one’s suit-jacket pocket until required.
The Death of the Metal Toothpick
Do gold and silver toothpicks still exist today? Absolutely! You can buy them on eBay right now. Granted, the silver versions are more common, but gold ones do still exist, even if they’re usually much, much more expensive. Gold examples are typically made of either 9 or 14kt gold, and silver ones are sterling silver.
That said, they’re not as common as they used to be. Nowadays, it’s much more common to carry around a plastic, or even a cheap, throwaway wooden toothpick, sharpened to a point. However, with fears over cross-contamination and germ-spreading, especially in the wake of the petering-out COVID-19 Pandemic, the use of individually-carried toothpicks might see a resurgence now, since the idea of digging into a communal container which everybody else has touched, to select something which you’re then going to put into your mouth…doesn’t sound particularly hygienic.
Buying a Gold or Silver Toothpick
“Y’know what? Buying and owning my own precious-metal toothpick, instead of using disposables, and contributing to waste, landfill, and cross-contamination – sounds like a good idea!…where can I get one?”
Well – there’s always the antique variants – they’re often found on eBay or other online selling-sites, or in antiques shops, but you can also buy the modern ones. Retractable silver and gold toothpicks still exist, and there are companies which still make them. From what I’ve seen, these are mostly produced in China or other Asian countries, where heavy toothpick use is still common. Of course, a silver toothpick will be much easier to find than a gold one, and will also cost significantly less – although – given how small they are – even a gold one doesn’t cost that much – which is how I was able to buy mine.
As for my own – I don’t know that much about it, except that it was likely manufactured in the UK, and in the early 1900s. There’s only one other mark on it apart from the “9ct”, and that appears to be a maker’s mark – which sadly, I haven’t been able to trace.
Regardless – this has got to be one of the most interesting (and the smallest!) antiques I’ve ever added to my collection!
…or what you can find online, if you search hard enough, wait long enough, and save up all your Christmas money for three years during a global pandemic! (Hey, at least it was useful for something…!).
So!
I’ve been after a MB146 in sterling silver (because sure as hell, I am not typing out the full model-name and variant all over again. Once in the title is more than sufficient for my carpal-tunnel syndrome, thank you very much…) for many, many, many years now. Since at least 2017, and definitely, since 2019. Sadly, the instances where I could actually buy the pen were annoyingly few, and far between.
Very, very, very far between.
Every time I saw one for sale at collectors’ fairs, they were either really expensive, or they were snapped up by other collectors, before I could even get a look-in. As usual – “…some guy just bought it, sorry…”, was the most common refrain I received in instances such as this. Oh, the dreaded ‘sumgai’ – the bane of every collector since the dawn of humanity.
Anybody who’s been a longtime reader of this blog will know that I love vintage and antique silverware. I do. I just do. I love how it looks, I love the different shades and finishes, I love how it gleams when it’s cleaned, and how almost anything can be made from silver, if you have enough imagination – like a beautiful sterling silver fountain pen! And since I love fountain pens, I had to find a beautiful marriage of the two, to add to my collection – and this was going to be it!
Sterling silver fountain pens are nothing new. They literally go back over 100 years, to the earliest days of fountain pen design in the 1880s and 1890s. Even before then, luxurious, gleaming, silver dip-pen holders were also available for those who wanted a bit of class while writing their daily correspondence. Fountain pens have always been made of sterling silver, from the oldest Parkers and Watermans (Watermen?) at the turn of the last century, right through to the Parker 75s, the Auroras, Omas and other more modern models of the late 1900s and early 2000s, and they’re still being made today.
Unfortunately, they are rare, which obviously makes them difficult to find. It’s not like every company produces a silver variant of every single model of pen that they produce, so getting your hands on one is not exactly easy – unless you buy the pen from a company that specialises in silverware, like Tiffany. Yes, Tiffany sells silver fountain pens – very, very, very expensive ones – but yes, they do. But even a company like Tiffany doesn’t exactly splash them around, and they are not easy to find secondhand.
The Start of the Hunt
I got interested in wanting to buy a silver Montblanc back in the mid-2010s, when I started seeing them in the collections of friends, and other collectors online in collectors’ groups on Facebook, but raising enough money to afford one was always a struggle. This was because almost every single one which I saw was being sold at retail prices – which, if you’re not aware, is the better part of $3,000+!!…which not only could I not afford, but also, couldn’t justify, even if I had that kind of money. Oy…
They do come at lower price-points, but I was always outbid, or out-bought, by faster (and probably richer) collectors than I, and so it was a fantasy that remained a fantasy for years to come.
However, the challenge in buying a silver Montblanc is not limited solely to the pricing of the item – but also the variant of pen that you want to buy. There’s quite a few of them out there, and this effects not only the price, but also the availability – and it can trip you up if you’re not aware of the details.
Montblanc fountain pens that have sterling silver variants are the 144 pocket-model, and the larger 146 piston-fill model, the little brother of the more famous MB149. Montblanc fountain pens in sterling silver are part of their “Solitaire” line of precious-metal fountain pens, which come in sterling silver, sterling vermeil (sterling silver with gold overlay), and finally, solid 18kt gold. They usually come in two finishes: Barleycorn, and Pinstripe. From what I’ve seen, the Pinstripe variant seems to be more popular (and consequently, more available).
These varieties are available for both sizes of Montblancs available in silver – so you can get a 144 in Barleycorn or Pinstripe, or a 146 in Barleycorn, or Pinstripe, and they’re priced accordingly online. This is why it’s so important to pay attention to the details when you’re chasing after a pen like this – because from a distance, they can look remarkably similar – and why you should always pay attention, ask questions, and ask for photographs when attempting to net one of these for your collection.
Cerchez le Plume!
After saving up over a year’s worth of antiques-flipping money, I attempted to track down a Solitaire 146 Pinstripe at the upcoming pen-collectors’ fair…and to quote Maxwell Smart – “Missed it by THAT much!”
Rats!
And to make things even more painful – this was the second time in a row that I’d missed out on a silver Montblanc at a collectors’ fair! Clearly, the fates were conspiring against me in some sadistic game of Piggy-in-the-Middle.
The pen as it appeared when I bought it. Tarnished, dark and gritty.
Every single silver Montblanc that I saw on sites like eBay and Etsy were asking insane amounts of money (by which I mean, full-retail prices), which I could never justify spending. Upwards of $2,500 – $3,500, not including the cost of postage. I’ve never bought a Montblanc at retail prices, and I didn’t intend to start now, so the quest continued.
This involved a lot of clicking, scanning through photos, reading descriptions, and checking details, but after a lot of effort, I finally found one for sale in Japan for what was a very good price for what it was. Still pretty expensive (it’s a Montblanc, it’s always going to be expensive), but also far below what they usually sell for. After shifting a few other pens in my collection to make space (and more money), I finally nabbed the pen and bought it!
For the price advertised, the pen was looking a bit rough. It didn’t have any surface damage that I could see, but it was significantly tarnished (being silver will do that to an item…), and the nib was looking a bit suspicious. However, apart from these slight cosmetic defects, it seemed to be perfectly functional – and it had the right type of nib which I like in my pens – a Fine.
The sterling silver mark of (925)
Could I have bought a nicer-looking silver Montblanc? Yes. But for the same price? Hell no! As I have said in previous posts of this type – collecting vintage items and antiques is all a matter of compromise. How much are you willing to put up with, overlook, or sacrifice, in order to find the item that you want? I decided that a bit of surface tarnishing, and nib-wonkiness, was nothing, and that I’d be happy to buy the pen in this condition. After all – there was nothing mechanically or really, cosmetically wrong with the pen, that I couldn’t fix. It just needed a damn good polishing – which you would have to do anyway, if you buy a silver pen, and a bit of nib-tweaking (which is VERY common with vintage pens) so in the long-run, it really made no difference. Besides, after all that work (which isn’t all that much, really), you’d get a new-looking pen for at least half the price of an actual brand-new pen. It’s a win-win!
Analyising the Pen
So – the pen arrived just a few days before Christmas, which must be one of those Christmas miracles I keep hearing so much about, because the postal tracking on this parcel had dropped off the face of the earth two weeks ago, leaving me all but guessing. But, it arrived, nonetheless, and was excellently packaged.
Once I got the pen out, I was able to see just how heavy the tarnishing was, but fortunately, not so heavy that I couldn’t just rub it off using my silver-cloth. The results were stunning!
The pen after extensive polishing and cleaning!
I was a bit worried about the tarnish, largely because tarnish usually hides defects and damage in silverware that you never notice until after it’s been cleaned – stuff like cracks, scratches and dents. But once this was cleaned, it was absolutely flawless! Muah!
The next area to check apart from the body, was the piston-filling mechanism – smooth as melted butter! Just like new! Nothing to see here, so I left it alone.
In examining the pen, I found clues to its age. The clip-ring at the top of the cap had a serial-number stamped into it, this was an anti-counterfeiting measure introduced by Montblanc in 1991 (and which continues today) to deter fraudulent manufacture. However, next to this, were the letters “W. GERMANY”, meaning that the pen was manufactured before the German Reunification in 1991. Deduction: The pen was made in the late 1890s or very early 1990s, and sold as a West-German pen, by a German company in a reunified Germany, around 1992, after the serial-numbers were introduced. So a pen like this would date pretty firmly to between 1990-1992. One last thing I found engraved on the cap was the single word “METAL”, indicating that this was indeed the matching silver cap for the silver pen barrel below.
Anyway, after exploring the pen to try and find out more about it, came the careful (and lengthy) examination of the nib. While it was, as advertised, indeed a Fine, it was a fine with significant issues attached – which I expected, for a pen which was this heavily discounted, but finding the cause for these issues was an adventure in and of itself!
Tweaking the Nib
The pen uncapped, to show off the 18kt gold FINE nib, and the striped ink-window
I found the nib on this fountain pen to be intolerably scratchy, noisy, and very unpleasant to write with. Out came the loupe, a bottle of ink, and a notepad, and what followed was several hours of nib-tweaking and adjustment. Leveling the tines, rocking the nib, and finally, spreading the point to increase the inkflow.
Tweaking and adjusting a fountain pen nib is a real exercise in patience. Nothing about this can be done in a hurry, and it can take hours to get right. You’re working in tolerances of fractions of millimeters, here, so absolutely microscopic adjustments have to be made, before the nib will write smoothly, or at least, less coarsely. However, despite all my best efforts, I was only able to make superficial improvements in the writing quality.
I was NOT happy. A pen from Montblanc, that cost this much, should write FLAWLESSLY. I don’t care how old it is! Montblanc provides, and I expect, and demand, perfection, goddamn it!
Time for drastic action!
I drained the pen of ink, and wrapped a tissue around the nib and feed. Then, I started twisting.
Montblanc and Pelikan fountain pens have feeds and nibs which screw into their sections. In theory, you need the correct piston-wrenches and section-wrenches to remove these components, but enough evenly-applied pressure is usually sufficient. After a firm twist, I felt a ‘pop!’, and the feed began to unscrew.
Once I’d gotten the nib out, I cleaned everything away – all the grit and dust and ink…and had a closer look.
Now I realised what the problem was: The nib wasn’t lined up with the feed! There was a tiny gap between the nib and feed, which meant that the tines at the nib-point would be uneven once the nib and feed were screwed into the pen. It’s so small that you’d never notice it (and would never SEE it, because it’s hidden by the SECTION!). Only by physically pulling out the feed, could I spot this defect. I gave the nib a slight twist to realign it against the feed, and then screwed the whole thing back into the pen and filled it with ink again.
Result: Absolute Perfection! The pen now wrote like it was built yesterday! Well worth every penny that I spent to buy it.
“Cool Pen!…Where Can I Get One!?”
Thanks! And uh…good luck!
Precious metal fountain pens in gold and silver are very hard to find, and very expensive. As I mentioned before, average price for one of Montblanc’s sterling silver models is upwards of $2,500 – $3,500+ (not including postage), depending on the seller, condition, and what’s included as part of the lot.
My pen was even harder to find, because it’s a vintage model. The Le Grand Solitaire Pinstripe in sterling silver (which is what this is), isn’t manufactured anymore. You can only get them vintage, or New-old-Stock, which only drives the price up even higher! If you are trying to find a sterling silver or precious-metal Montblanc of any kind, (or any type of fountain pen made of these materials) then start saving – they hardly ever go on sale for under $1,000, unless they’re the small, 144-sized pocket-pens. The chances of finding a 146-sized pen in sterling silver, vermeil, or solid gold, for under $1,000 is never going to happen.
To find them, search collectors’ communities on Facebook, ask friends or other collectors who might have one they want to sell (unlikely), trawl eBay or pen-selling websites, and visit pen-fairs and collectors’ shows. That’s about the only way you’ll ever get your hands on one, short of buying one brand-new from Montblanc.
Just thirty-odd days from now is the 2022 MELBOURNE PEN SHOW!!
This is the first show that Melbourne has had since 2019, with the event obviously unable to run during the height of the COVID pandemic, but with things settling down, this, the oldest show of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, is now back on track!
The Melbourne Pen Show takes place at…
The Malvern Town Hall. (Cnr. Glenferrie Road & High Street, Armadale, Melbourne, VIC. Australia). 9:00am – 4:00pm. 20th of November, SUNDAY, 2022.
Admission is $10.00. Kids can come in for free!
There are over two dozen sellers and exhibitors, and over three dozen tables full of stuff to look at, and buy!
So if you’re in Melbourne, coming to Melbourne, or planning to visit Melbourne in November, drop in and have a look!
We’ve got pens, pencils, stationery, leather-goods, desk accessories, writing accessories, antiques, pen-storage and maintenance supplies, and much more besides! The Melbourne Pen Show is the largest writing instruments and accessories fair in Australia, and south of the equator! Drop by and find out for yourself.
PLEASE BRING CASH. Most sellers will not do EFTPOS.
From the early 1800s until the 1930s, China – the Central Kingdom – did a lot of trade with the west. Not all of it willingly, but a lot of it, in the various types of merchandise, materials and curiosities that Western audiences were very eager to acquire: Chinese silks, Chinese porcelain, Chinese tea, various oriental spices, and even Chinese silverware!
These various types of merchandise – furniture, porcelain, silks, silver and suchlike – were known as “exportware” – because they were deliberately made in China, for export (or internal sale in the Concessions) to Western markets. Today, such articles of exportware can be very valuable, and are often sought-after by collectors. A couple of weeks ago, I landed myself my own small piece of exportware – a lovely pair of Chinese export silver chopsticks.
This lovely pair of chopsticks, in solid silver, feature beautiful twisting grips that taper down to thin, cylindrical points, and have lovely carved rings set near the base of the grips, to show where one’s fingers should grip the chopsticks when in use. A set like this would’ve been purchased as a personal set, for individual use – either by the buyer, or as a gift for someone else. Fancy silver chopsticks like this would not have been cheap, but they would certainly have been treasured!
Sets like these are typical of those made in the late 1800s through to the early 1900s, and they’re sometimes identified as “travel” chopsticks. This is because, as you’ll have noticed – they are chained together at the top!
Chaining the sticks together is a deliberate act, and would’ve been done when the chopsticks were being made. It’s actually a far more common practice than you might think, and I’ve seen it done with several sets of antique personal-use chopsticks such as these, in the past. The whole point of the chaining is to prevent the sticks from being separated, and to stop them from being lost. This appears to have been common with personal silver sets like this – but less common with other sets – I’ve never seen this practice applied to antique chopstick-pairs which weren’t made of silver, suggesting that they weren’t valuable enough to warrant this extra effort of making, and then securing, a chain to the top of the sticks to prevent separation.
Using the Chopsticks
So, does the chain get in the way of anything? Does it make the chopsticks harder to use?
Honestly? No!
When held properly and used correctly, the back-end of a pair of chopsticks never moves more than a fraction of an inch, so provided that a proper grip is maintained – the chain will never pose an issue to effective chopstick use – and you’ll be able to eat quite comfortably!
If anything, the fact that the chopsticks are made of silver, is one of the main issues in using them. The silver is really thin, which can make the sticks fiddly to hold, and the tips are really smooth – which means there may not always be sufficient friction to grip the food – so basically eating noodles with these things is an exercise in futility…but anything else that isn’t slick or slippery, should be no more difficult than eating with any other chopsticks.
How old Are They?
The fact that they are export silver chopsticks would mean that a set like these are at least 100 years old. The wear on the silver and the discoloration just from regular use, is enough proof of their age already. On top of that, the heavy use has not only given the sticks a lot of wear and patina, but they’ve also meant that neither stick is 100% straight, either!
Rolling, pressing, and applying gentle pressure has eased out the worst of the warping, but they’ll never be 100% straight…maybe 95%, but that’s about it. This is the sort of wear that only comes from regular use over many, many decades of ownership, and I think it only makes them more quirky and desirable, as well as providing proof of their age.
You honestly never know what you’ll find when you’re browsing the flea-market.
I picked up this neat little walking stick about a week ago!
Normally I don’t buy walking sticks, but I do find them fascinating. For the longest time, walking sticks of one variety or another were popular all over the world, from China to Chile, England to America, Europe to Ecuador! A tradition dating back literally thousands of years, people carrying walking sticks has been done for all kinds of reasons – fashion, infirmity, self-defense, to complete an outfit, to make a statement, to fend off attack, or to assist in traversing rough terrain.
Walking sticks were at their height of popularity in the 1700s, 1800s, and early 1900s, when people were traveling and moving around more than ever.
A typical walking stick is comprised of three or four parts:
The Handle
The handle is the grip at the top of the walking stick. It’s either a curved crook, a T-shaped ‘derby’ handle, or else some kind of knob or grip. This can be as elaborate or as simple as you like – topped with brass, sterling silver, ivory, bone, glass, pearl, or even solid gold – if your pocketbook can stretch that far!
The Collar
The collar is the area directly beneath the handle. This serves a mostly decorative function, and is designed to make the transition between the handle to the body of the stick more pleasing. Collars were usually brass, silver, or gold. Sometimes, they were engraved with things like dates, names, dedications or inscriptions, if, for example, the stick was a gift or presentation, or if the owner wished to identify it in the event of loss.
The Shaft
The main body of a walking stick is known as the shaft. It can be made of almost anything! Wood, bamboo, rattan, bone, glass, or even ivory!
The Ferrule
The ferrule is the spot at the very bottom of the walking stick. Today, most ferrules are made of rubber or leather, but in times past, ferrules were often made of sterling silver, brass, or steel. The point of the ferrule is to protect the base of the shaft from contact with the ground. Constant striking and scraping would damage a stick very easily, and cause the shaft to crack, split, or shatter! To stop this, the ferrule took the impact of any strikes against the ground, and prevented the stick’s base from wearing out. If or when a ferrule wore out – it was easily replaced – without damaging the stick itself.
The Stick I Found at the Market
So what about this stick? What’s the story behind that?
Well, as I said, I picked it up at the market – cheap – because the handle was badly damaged. It was cracked and worn out, and had been broken at some point. It had been replaced at one point with a new walking stick header or topper, but this was only crudely attached – and came off easily – as you can see.
That being the case – why did I buy it?
Well, I was interested in it for a number of reasons…
One – the body or shaft was of an unusual material – it may not be immediately obvious – but it’s actually made – not from wood – but from bamboo! You might notice that the stick is not fully straight – it curves and bends slightly, due to the nature of the bamboo when it was growing – which makes the stick a little quirky!
Two – the stick had a silver handle – and I liked that. I’ve always liked silver, and that attracted me to it. But lots of walking sticks have silver handles – so what? Well – this led me to the third part of the stick which I liked…
Three – the collar! This was what really interested me in the stick – not the handle, not the fact it was broken, not the bamboo – but the collar. The reason I was so interested in it was because the collar (and presumably the original handle, at one point) featured all kinds of Chinese motifs on it, which I thought was really cute! Wrapped around the top of the stick was a silver collar – roughly an inch and a half wide – and it was festooned with trees, palms, and figures dressed in old, Chinese attire, and little Oriental-style buildings in the background in hills and streams…and I thought – it’s adorable! And so topical – for fairly obvious reasons!
So after solid haggling, I got it half-price, and walked off with it, swinging it through the air for fun.
Fixing the Handle
Despite my best efforts, repairing the – by now – at least twice-previously-repaired handle – was just not going to be easy. And yet – also surprisingly easy – all at the same time.
The original handle was just a flat plate across the top of the collar – this much I could tell just from looking at the stick – there was no attachment point for anything more elaborate like a crosspiece or a chunk of ivory, etc. This had been replaced at some point by a dome-top, which was all dinged up from use – striking against things and so on. This was wobbly and loose, and when I got it home, it eventually fell off altogether when the stick was unbalanced and hit the floor!
That was when I realised just how badly the replacement repair had been made! The replacement knob was just cheap, silver hollow-ware – basically a shell of paper-thin silver which had been stuck on the top of the stick – and stuck badly, too, if one good knock was all it took to break it off! And when I mean the silver was paper-thin, I mean literally paper thin – you could rip it in half with your fingers – and it was completely hollow underneath, to boot. All in all, a completely useless repair for a part of the stick which is designed to take the full weight of the user.
Fortunately, my little mishap did not damage the reason why I bought the stick in the first place – the beautiful silver collar.
Repairing the Damage
The real challenge came with repairing the top of the stick – and this proved to be surprisingly easy to do. I found some silver of a suitable shape, size and thickness in the box of broken silver scraps which I keep aside whenever I buy antiques. In digging through it, I found a large, sterling silver cufflink with a broken toggle. I broke the toggle off with a pair of pliers, and placed it over the damaged spot on the top of the stick – it matched up perfectly!
Mixing up some epoxy, I filled the gap left by the broken handle, with enough glue to completely flood any gaps, so that we wouldn’t have another cave-in. The overflow from this gap-filling would be sufficient to seat the new handle-topper over the damaged area, and make the stick resemble, more or less, what it would’ve looked like when it was new, back in the 1800s. It was just a matter of sticking it down, and adjusting the positioning so that the rim of the new header lined up with the uppermost rim of the decorative silver collar.
Some slight misalignment was inevitable (because of the aged nature of the materials involved, and the previous damage to the handle), but I’d say it was 99% successful! I found a suitable place to stand the stick upright, and left it alone overnight to cure.
Come morning – the stick was good as new!
The diameter of the old cufflink which I used as a handle-topper is SLIGHTLY wider than the width of the collar-top at its widest point. This means that now, the handle flares out ever-so-slightly, and tapers down towards the collar – which is a really nice effect. Plus, it allows you to hang the stick easily between your fingers without having to actually grip it.
The slightly off-kilter nature of the repair matches with the battered look of the collar underneath, and doesn’t make it look like anybody was trying too hard to be perfect with a flawless repair that would be jarring with the overall appearance of the stick. Last but not least – being able to use silver – a proper, solid piece of silver – to fix the handle meant that both the collar, and the handle were now made of solid silver which was not going to break off, crack, rip off or drop off anytime soon – and the stick should be good to go for another 150-odd years!
What do we Know about this Stick?
A stick like this is certainly no modern manufactured geriatric support aid. Oh no. Definitely not.
A stick like this has age, has use, and has been around the block more than a few dozen times!
Looking closely at the stick, there are several indicators of age, and also, of country or region of origin.
On top of that there’s the silver collar. It’s festooned and decorated with all kinds of Asian themes – people in robes with Asian features, Asian-style buildings and flora, and just a whole ‘Oriental’ vibe. This overt Oriental decoration points to it being made in Asia (if the shaft material alone didn’t suggest that!) – and most likely for export to the West.
The collar has no hallmarks on it – Asian silver in those days was rarely marked – and when it was, they wouldn’t have bothered with something as insignificant and small as a walking-stick handle! On top of that, there’s all kinds of minor damage to the stick. For example – the shaft has loads of cracks in it from where the bamboo has dried out (I filled and clamped some of these with glue, to improve the structural integrity of the stick) – and the silver collar has all kinds of little dings and chips from where it’s been handled – again – not something you can easily fake.
Last but not least – is the length of the ferrule.
The ferrule is the cap at the bottom of the stick, remember? And this can be used in dating the stick.
Later sticks, those made in the late 1800s and into the 1900s, typically had shorter, less substantial ferrules, while earlier sticks from the 1700s and earlier 1800s, had longer, more substantial ferrules.
Why?
Well – it was because of the state of the roads and transport at the time! Paved roads is something we take for granted today, but for most of history, very few roads – in town, and especially in the country – were ever paved. And if they were, they were paved with cobblestones or similar, which were hard-wearing, to the point of destruction! Because of this, earlier walking sticks needed thicker, longer ferrules to guard against the scraping and chipping on cobbles or bluestone pavers, and to protect against mud, ooze, dirt and water, which could rot the base of the walking stick. To stop this from happening, sticks were made with thicker-based ferrules with longer shafts covering more of the walking stick to give extra protection.
As paving improved and roads became less hazardous, walking stick ferrules became smaller and smaller, since less of the shaft had to be protected from mud, water and grime now, and the hard wear on the tip was less likely.
Since this stick has quite a substantial ferrule (nearly two inches!) it had to be an older one, since a more modern stick would only be about half an inch, to an inch at most.
All in all – a beautiful antique, and one with a fascinating past which we can only guess at.
These four little ivory fellas (yes, they are ivory) were my latest score at the flea-market, and they are a miniature representation of the famous “Four Wise Monkeys”.
Parodied endlessly in memes, cartoons, statues, and kitschy little nicknacks like this, the wise monkeys have been around for thousands of years! But who are they? What are their origins? What are their names? Where do they come from? Today, we find out.
Hey, Hey! We’re the Monkeys!
Before we begin, just who are the “four wise monkeys”?
From left to right, we have: See no Evil (covering eyes), Hear no Evil (covering ears), Speak no Evil (covering mouth), and finally – Do no Evil (covering crotch).
The Four Wise Monkeys date back thousands and thousands of years, and are said to be the embodiment of four virtues or beliefs to lead a peaceful and harmonious life – namely, not to badmouth others, not to listen to evil thoughts or deeds, not to speak ill of others, and not to commit unlawful acts. But where exactly do these four most famous of tenets come from?
The first-ever hint of anything relating to the four monkeys (or at least, of their four sayings) dates back to the second century B.C.E, and was written out as “Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety“, giving us, not only the four sayings, but also, the original order in which they were positioned.
But who was it who spoke so eloquently, so deeply, and yet, so succinctly? A Chinese philosopher of almost mythical status – that’s who! A man, who, even two thousands years after his death, is still remembered to this day.
A man named…Kong Qiu…but whom his students called “Kong Fuzhi” – and who is known to western audiences by the Latinised name – Confucius! Yes indeed!
The statement above is taken from Confucius’s “Lun Yu“, or Book of Selected Sayings – usually translated into English as the Analects of Confucius, or Sayings of Confucius – a series of sayings or proverbs recorded by Confucius, and by Confucian scholars during, and after his lifetime.
The Origin of the Monkeys
‘Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage‘. Thus spake the English poet Richard Lovelace, in 1642.
While that may be true – so is it also true that one series of proverbs from some old Chinese guy, do not immediately translate into a cutesy little catchphrase, which may or may not be uttered by four adorable little primates, sitting in a row.
And if that be true – then where did the four monkeys come from? Who are the famous ‘Four Wise Monkeys’? What’s their origin?
The answer? Japan!
In Japanese culture, the monkeys were originally three in number, and were known as Mizaru (see no evil), Kikazaru (hear no evil), Iwazaru (speak no evil) and finally – when a fourth monkey was included – Sezaru (do no evil). It’s because of this Japanese origin that the monkeys are traditionally depicted as Japanese Macaques – a breed of monkey which is – as the name suggests – native to Japan.
While the saying (or a variation of it) likely came from China, the addition of the monkeys or macaques, is almost certainly Japanese. So – where did that come from?
It’s believed that the first depiction of the monkeys comes from the Nikko Tosho-gu shinto shrine, in the Japanese city of…Nikko…as the name suggests. The depiction was in the form of wooden carvings on a doorframe – and these carvings are believed to be the first artistic representation of this kind. The shrine dates back to 1617.
Over time, the three (sometimes four) monkeys became synonymous with the Confucian saying, and the two were melded together as being one and the same, even though they started out as two entirely separate entities – the phrase coming from China, and the monkeys from Japan.
Back to the Ivory Monkeys
OK, so much for the history. But what about these four little guys themselves, what’s their story?
In all likelihood – they’re a tourist piece. Ivory carvings made from leftover chunks of scrap ivory used to make larger items, were very popular in the 1800s and early 1900s as cheap, kitschy little souvenirs. These were sold in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and so-on, to Western tourists coming from Australia, the Americas, Britain, or Europe. Even back then, ivory was very expensive, so every last piece was used, and what was used, was used sparingly. That’s why even something this small (the little monkey-figures are only 1.25 inches tall!) was considered worthwhile to carve – purely due to the scarcity and expense of the material.
All in all, it’s a cute little piece, and I’m very happy to add it to my collection of antique ivory.
With the closure of one of my local antiques centers imminent, a lot of the local dealers have been trying to liquidate their stock, and this involved some of them taking it to the local weekend flea-market to try and sell it off at greatly reduced prices.
That was how I got my hands on this curious little device!
I love anything to do with writing, antiques, history, and silver, and when this little doohickey showed up and scratched all those itches at once – I had to buy it!
Never seen one before? I’m not surprised. They’re not exactly common.
This long, square, silver tube is a device known as a sealing-wax dispenser! It would’ve held a long, square stick of sealing wax, which the user could extend or retract using the sliding silver toggle on the side of the tube.
It was made in England, and has full English hallmarks on the sides, dating it to London, 1904.
The dispenser measures six inches long, and is perfectly square. Inside is a sliding metal collar which is used to grip the sealing wax when it’s pressed into the tube.
But you might ask – why does such a thing exist?
It’s simple, really. Dispensers like this were intended to make the process of melting sealing-wax easier. The extender-slide on the side of the dispenser allowed the user to advance the stick of wax and melt it with a candle or cigarette lighter, while also keeping one’s fingers as far away from the flame as possible – something which would become harder and harder as the stick of wax got progressively shorter. Burning your fingers on hot sealing wax is something you’d never forget doing!…I speak from experience.
Devices for holding, melting and dispensing sealing wax used to be very common in the 1800s and early 1900s, especially with the rise of official government postal systems which made written correspondence faster and cheaper. Along with wax dispensers like these, there were also wax-jacks, and even wax-melters, which had little spirit stoves and spoons for heating, melting and pouring the liquid hot wax.
Part of the reason for such an array of devices specifically for sealing wax was because of the nature of sealing wax itself.
A sterling silver sealing-wax jack
Unlike candle-wax, which is deliberately soft and pliable, for easy melting, sealing wax – traditional sealing-wax, anyway – has an entirely different composition. Along with the wax and the colourant to make it red, black, blue or whatever other colour (red is the most traditional), sealing wax has a third ingredient: Shellac. It’s this shellac which gives the wax its distinctive hardness and makes it harder to melt. This also means that it’s harder to break, which keeps the letter or parcel more secure once sealed. And if it is broken, then it’s impossible to put back together again, which tells the recipient that the parcel or document had been opened before its delivery.
But it’s because traditional sealing wax is harder, and harder to melt, that all these devices were invented. None of them are strictly necessary (you can easily melt sealing wax without them), but they make a tricky and potentially painful task much easier, and more pleasant overall.
While Montblanc is most famous for being a manufacturer of high-grade writing instruments such as fountain pens, rollerballs, mechanical pencils and…ahem…uh…b…ba…ball…ballpoints…for the longest time, Montblanc has also been a retailer and manufacturer of a lot of other things besides.
In more recent times, Montblanc has started exploring areas such as watches, jewelry, cufflinks, and even cologne, but while some people think that this is a relatively recent trend, with other such niche companies also expanding outwards (Victorinox which manufactures the Swiss army knife, is a good example), Montblanc has been making a lot of other things besides pens, for many decades – not something that most people are generally aware of, because all they ever really associate the brand with, is its pens.
Regardless of this, it does happen to be true, even if the non-pen Montblanc products are less well-known or well-advertised as its luxury writing instruments.
From pen stands to inkwells, rocker-blotters to desk-blotters, notepad holders and portfolio cases, the company produces a lot more than just pens! The fact that these items are not always as fully advertised as its other products means that you can sometimes find some weird, interesting, and different items for sale which have since fallen through the cracks of advertising history.
A good example is something I found on eBay about a month ago, which came to me all the way from the USA – a solid crystal paperweight-bowl, sold by Montblanc, probably at some time back in the 90s.
The difference between Montblanc’s accessories ranges, and its ranges of pens, is that unlike a good portion of its pens, Montblanc’s various ranges of accessories are not part of its regular product-lines. You could buy a brand-new Montblanc #149 in 1952, and you can buy a brand-new Montblanc #149 in 2022. But you can’t buy a Montblanc Meisterstuck inkwell brand new today, or the matching blotter new today. They’re simply not made anymore. You can get them as NOS, NIB condition, from stores which never successfully sold them to begin with – but that’s about the closest you’re ever going to get.
This is why so many of Montblanc’s more obscure products…are…obscure! They were produced for short periods of time, and then they’re just forgotten about!
It was by pure chance that I found this crisp, sleek, rather minimalist glass bowl paperweight on eBay, complete with the original packaging. It’s from Montblanc’s “LifeStyle” collection, which was from a few decades back. Considering that they’re not made anymore, I thought it’d make an interesting addition to my collection of writing accessories.
A bit of research confirmed that the piece was a genuine Montblanc item, and I was also able to find a pretty decent idea of the original sale-price…which sounded frightfully expensive for a fancy paperweight – even if it is trying to be useful by doubling as a glorified snack-bowl! Either way, I estimated that it was, even with postage – a 75% discount – so I decided to buy it. It would take a while to get here from the ‘States, but I was prepared to wait.
And the wait was worth it. The bowl is not, as the photos might suggest, a perfect square. The sides are not straight, and instead taper inwards towards the base. The Montblanc star logo, and the company name are engraved on the base and on one side, of the bowl. Not sure why it isn’t engraved on all four sides, but there it is.
The bowl is surprisingly heavy. It’s large for what it is, but still much heavier than its size would suggest. It’s originally advertised as a “paperclip bowl”, which sounds rather pretentious for something which is basically a glorified snack-bowl, but it is nonetheless a useful and interesting desktop accessory. And it’s certainly heavy enough to stop papers from blowing away – with or without paperclips, or chocolate bonbons – filling up the bowl in the middle!
The bowl itself is hemispherical in shape, and the entire piece is absolutely flawless. There’s no cracks, chips or other damage anywhere on the piece. A few marks from age and grime which were easily polished off, but nothing which marred the beautiful smooth finish of the bowl – and smooth is the key word here – it’s so well-polished that it literally slides across my desk!
Apart from the fact that it exists, that it was in such great condition and came with all its packaging, another thing which surprised me about the bowl was its sheer size! From edge to edge it’s about 4 inches across, and two inches high, so it’s not some insubstantial little trinket, and you could probably store a lot of loose change, or chocolate bonbons or…yeah, even paperclips…in here, if you wished. So while it would’ve been very expensive, and heavy, and rather simplistic, it does have the advantage of being good quality, and of being large enough to serve a practical purpose.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved weird, quirky, interesting antiques – especially anything related to writing – my main hobby.
It’s for that reason that I’ve always wanted to buy a roller blotter.
“A what?” I hear you say.
Yeah, like a lot of people, I didn’t know that roller blotters were a thing, either! But, apparently they are, and ever since I found out that these things existed, I’ve wanted to own one. Problem is, they’re not exactly common, and hardly any pen or stationery companies still make them, so getting your hands on one can be tricky.
The first time I saw one, it was this tiny silver thing on eBay – and god almighty the price was gigantic…probably because it was some vintage thing made by Montblanc. But ever since I realised that they were a thing that you could buy – I had one hanging around in my brain on the back burner as being something that might be neat to add to my collection.
And recently, that dream came true! I was poking around on the internet and found about half a dozen of these things for sale! Antique ones, made around the turn of the century, all with silver handles, and with rollers in various states of…uh…rollability. After scanning over about four or five different options and weighing up condition, price, size, postage, and so on, I finally settled on one! It was a great price, even with the postage on top of it, and it’s certainly a writing accessory that most people will never have seen before – so it’ll be a heck of an addition to my collection!
Of course, anything at that price is never going to be perfect, so naturally, a certain amount of restoration was required before the new blotter could be used. This mostly consisted of a bit of light sanding of the wood, and shaping of the metal to make sure everything was straight and true – and finally – wrapping the wooden roller with some blotting paper so that it could be used.
Affixing the blotting paper to the roller took a bit of ingenuity, to be sure. As there’s no way of sliding a cylinder of paper around the roller, or of affixing it into place, all you can do is cut a strip of paper, wrap it around the roller and then glue it in-place – but not onto the actual wood itself – if you did that, you’d never get it off again! And that might be problematic if you wanted to change the paper later.
What I ended up doing was using a tiny amount of sticky-tape to tape the paper down onto the roller, wrapping the blotting paper around, and then gluing the paper back down onto the starting point of the paper, thereby reducing the chances of the paper slipping off the cylinder.
It’s a bit more work than simply wrapping the paper around the base of a rocker-blotter and clamping it in place or whatever – but it works!
But does this whole roller-thingy actually work? Absolutely, as you can see from the photograph above! So long as the blotting paper is wrapped tightly and secured firmly in place so that it doesn’t unwrap or slide off the roller – it’s a perfectly workable blotting solution.
And it takes up less space on your desk than a traditional rocker blotter!
This is pretty neat, huh? I bought this on eBay about a month ago, as an addition to my collection of writing instruments. I’ve always wanted a drop-action pencil, ever since a friend showed me one in her own collection. One day I was browsing eBay, and found a few which were for sale, and ended up buying this slick, smooth-sided cylindrical deal from the late Edwardian era.
The pencil is in sterling silver, and is made by the famed English manufacturer, Sampson Mordan & Co.
Sampson Mordan – the man, not the company – was an 18th and 19th century English silversmith and inventor. In his youth, he was apprenticed to the equally-famous English locksmith, Joseph Bramah (of ‘Bramah locks’ fame).
Mordan didn’t become a locksmith, but he was fascinated by mechanical doohickeys, and ended up inventing, in the early 1820s – the first ever mechanical pencil! The pencil operated on a screw-type mechanism where by rotating the pencil advanced or propelled the shaft of graphite out of the tip of the silver housing, allowing a person to write with a pencil without getting graphite all over their fingers, and without having to constantly sharpen the point. Since the action of the pencil’s mechanism propelled the graphite out of it, they became known as ‘propelling pencils’.
Mordan made a HUGE name for himself as the inventor of, and chief producer of, graphite propelling pencils! Largely made in sterling silver and gold (he was a silversmith, after all), the Sampson Mordan silversmithing firm started cranking out all kinds of whimsical designs for pencils. In the 1800s, there was no such thing as a portable fountain pen, and the ballpoint was a century away – so having a compact, easy-to-operate writing instrument in your pocket that you could whip out at any moment was very useful. Mordan (and other companies) started manufacturing all kinds of novelty shapes and styles.
You could buy pencils which were shaped like rifles, golf-clubs, cricket-bats, wine-bottles, and polo-mallets! In sterling silver, or in a wide variety of gold.
One of the company’s greatest inventions came out in the late 1800s – the drop-action pencil holder!
Pencil-holders had existed before Mordan, but they were all slide-action. You grasped the barrel of the holder, and then with your other hand, you pulled the slide down the barrel, and the pencil inside slid out, held in place by the clutch-ring inside the mechanism. These were good, sorta, but the need to always have two hands free to operate them was always a bit of a faff!
The drop-action pencil-holder, by comparison, was a big improvement!
The mechanism is very simple, and works entirely on gravity (so long as you have the right pencil size!). After seating the pencil firmly in the circular clutch-ring inside the barrel, you press the release-button on the back of the holder. The whole thing works on a catch-and-release system. Pressing the button both drops the button down, and twists it slightly. This releases the clutch-ring that holds the pencil, and allows it to drop down through the barrel and out the end of the holder, exposing the pencil, and locking the ring in place.
The holder with the pencil extended
When you’re done writing, you press the release-button again, and, with another in-and-twist motion, the clutch-ring is released from the barrel opening and drops back into the base of the holder.
Hence ‘drop-action’. That said, they’re also called gravity-action pencils, because they work entirely on gravity. Since the pencil could be operated entirely by one hand, it became very popular. Such holders were compact, portable, easy to use (which made them great when you were busy and needed to take notes) and economical, because they allowed you to use up the last few centimetres of a pencil before having to throw it out when it at last, wore down to a stub!
Pencil-holders like these started losing favour among writers after the First World War. When fountain pens started coming onto the market, the need to always carry a pencil around with you diminished greatly, and eventually, pencil-holders and propelling pencils started losing ground to the modern mechanical click-action clutch-pencil used today.
The hallmarks on the silver barrel. Originally it was just “S.M.” for Sampson Mordan, but after he died in the 1840s, it was changed to “SM&Co.” for Sampson Mordan & Company. SM&Co. ended in 1941, when the factory in London was bombed by the Nazis during the Blitz
Regardless, antique silver and gold drop-action and slide-action pencil-holders are still popular, and still collected today, for their artistry, their uniqueness, but also for their practicality – unlike the antique propelling pencils which relied on specifically-sized graphite leads or rods to operate – these pencil-holders simply require another pencil!
Such holders do have a few drawbacks – ONE – their small size means that only small pencils fit into them, so you can’t have anything longer than 2-3 inches – TWO – the pencils have to fit into the clutch-ring that holds the pencil-stub in place inside the barrel. This means you have to whittle down the pencil to fit in – THREE – modern hexagonal pencils are a bit fiddly. They still work, but it’s better to use pencils which are cylindrical, instead, since they slide in and out of the holder more reliably. You can use a hexagonal pencil if you want to, however you’d have to round-off the edges on the shaft first, to prevent them from rubbing on the sides of the barrel and jamming the mechanism.
The release-button and the slide-and-lock mechanism may also need some cleaning with a bit of oil for lubrication, but once everything does work, it works very smoothly, with a solid ‘click’ at each end of the slide, to indicate that the pencil has been locked into position.
The final drawback to these pencil-holders is that for them to function – they must be in really good condition. Any big dents or dings on the sides of the barrel will render the holder completely useless, since they would jam the sliding mechanism inside, meaning that the pencil would be stuck in the open or closed position. If you’re looking to buy such a pencil for your own use – always check for dents – even a small one can incapacitate a pencil with relative ease.
