WRITING IMPLEMENTS
  ITEMS NOT IN
WESTERN WRITING IMPLEMENTS

An ancient Roman bronze stylus for writing on a wax tablet, and an ancient Egyptian turquoise-glazed cartouche-form doulbe inkwell  

A typical wooden-handled brass rastrum for ruling musical staves, 130mm, and a superb and unique brass double-ended rastrum in its original pocket case signed "ROBERT WELSH Fecit CORK AD1765 ", 150mm, (overall)

A Chinese 19th-century carved hardstone ink-stone and a 19th-century stick of ink

A group of early to mid 19th-century steel-pointed dip pens by Joseph Gillott of Birmingham, the top example a barrel nib about 120mm long and .......

....... probably the smallest steel nib made, 11 mm long,
by William Mitchell
of Birmingham

A group of Keswick-made cedarwood goods made for the tourist market by pencil manufacturers like Hogarth and Hayes, including a pencil walking stick, cylinder rules and oversize pencils

A typical late Georgian horn-scaled penknife, the blade marked "NASH", 80mm long, with boiled skiver leather pocket case stamped "W.BUSHBY", with illegible place-name

A George IV quill cutting machine, ivory, nickel and steel,  marked "FISHER 188 STRAND, 87mm long

A late 18th-century quill knife with spirally fluted tapering bone handle, the blade marked "I" over a heart, in decoratively tooled boiled leather pocket case, 176mm, (overall)

A rare nickel mechanical quill cutter with needle-threading device, by Holtzapffel, London, Maker, Charing Cross, Patent Nos. 456 and 789, 48mm long excluding ring suspender

A rare George IV gilt-brass quill-cutting machine, finely engraved with an all-over design of foliate scrollwork, marked "M" and "LONDON" for Sampson Mordan , 44mm long, in red morocco pocket case, plush-lined, 82mm long

A group of 19th-century novelty silver propelling pencils and an ivory and silver dip-penholder, by Sampson Mordan of London, a firm who specialised in such novelties

A group of 19th-century Birmingham-made die-stamped metal canisters for steel pens

A group of 19th-century Birmingham-made die-stamped metal cases in which leads for propelling pencils were sold

A paper case of Lund's Leads, each lead housed within a fine glass tube within

A deluxe version of the lead case on the left, in wine morocco, probably from a travelling portmanteau

A salesman's folding sample case of Gillott's steel pens, 1900. Similar sample wallets with many pages unfolding in concertina fashion are also found

A group of cast metal pen-wiping brushes for the desk, some of Austrian cold-painted bronze, others of brass

A rare late Georgian home-made pen-wiper in the form of a wooden peg doll of the period, reclining on a bed, her fan with the hand-written request, "Pray, may I wipe your pen"

A home-made pen-wiper from a printed pattern, 19th century