Several years ago I bought an old wooden pencil-case with delightful imagery on the lid. It contained the pens and pencils that had been used by its schoolgirl owner long ago; probably in the nineteen-thirties.
The handle of her dip pen is very slender, too thin for me to use comfortably. I use a thicker handle. These images from soscandalous’s eBay sale show both styles. I thank Shell for permission to use her photos.
That looks like an excellent lot to me; the red one would suit my hand quite well. Obviously I don’t know what the final price will be when bidding gets under way. I hope she does well.
In general dip pens and nibs – especially nibs – have become quite expensive in recent times. A quite ordinary unopened box of nibs will be offered for £25-£30 in eBay these days. I’m thankful that I got a couple of boxes much cheaper some time ago. I also have a box of miscellaneous nibs sent to me by generous friends.
I write with a dip pen quite a lot now as my correspondents will know, usually using either relief or stub nibs. I love how it enhances the appearance of my writing.
To get back to dip pen handles, my husband tells me that when he was introduced to them in school (a remarkably long time ago – would you believe 1957?) the handles his class was given were of the very thin type. It is possible to find thick handles that are obviously quite old, so why were beginners given those thin little sticks that are so hard to manipulate? Any ideas? Of course use of very thin handles was not restricted to novices. They were in every office and offered for use in banks. I suppose once you had gone through the difficult learning process of using those things as a child, they had no fears for the adult. I didn’t learn using them and my hand is quite sore after a couple of paragraphs with one. That’s why I have a selection of nicely tapered thicker handles.
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Deb. 🌺 it’s interesting that you have started moving toward dippers for correspondence, as opposed to maybe a thicker heirloom pen which you would surely have had access too !
I went through a phase a while back, collecting lovely old MOP and gold dippers ,some with their original thin wooden and leather cases, and was lucky enough to score a bundle from one seller that could have done much better had they been in the know :A set of six MOP and gold dippers with tiny gold nibs with an elastic band round them.
What was intriguing was that they are so small; like 130mm and 5mm tapering to 2mm at the end.
It’s hard to imagine how anyone could have written comfortably with these things, yet they appear to have been relatively common!?
I’ve tried writing with them, but they require such a light and delicate touch that it is quite difficult to hold them this way for any length of time..
And …..don’t get me started on …arthritis…I don’t need to tell you 🤣😩
I’ve been using an Osmiroid with a medium italic nib, and that’s very good too, but I do like playing with dip pens. Perhaps the very slender dip pen is a descendant of the shaved quill, which I think was the normal way they were used, rather than the full feather seen in many modern illustrations.
Oh yes! 1950s junior school dip pens with the china inkwell in- set in the desk. Miss Twemblow was a very thin spindly lady a bit like olive oil in Popye, I thought of her every time I watched it on TV. The pens were thin varnished wood making it hard to grip blue steel nibs. Funny I do not remember seeing a fountain pen back then only the doctor had one as I recall. I bought a silver dipper with a glass dip pen nib with a tiny glass ball as the nib. Never saw one before but for £1.00 I thought it was a snip. Robert Wyatt, Bath.
Those glass nibs were very popular at one time. They are very practical.
I honestly don’t know how people struggle with holding pens. I have huge hands. My wrist size is almost 10 inches but I can quite happily use anything from an Eboya Houga, large size, to a tiny Japanese eyedropper or a Conway Stewart dinkie. I don’t even ever post them. Just relax the grip. I use the standard thumb and forefinger on the section. None of these weird grips. Stop trying too hard.
The reason that I and several f my correspondents don’t like those very thin dip pen handles is because we have arthritis in our hands. There was a time I could use anything too…
Fair enough.
I just sometimes get wound up at folk saying they can’t do this or that and the main reason is that they’ve got a mental block against it. A case in point is whether to post a pen or not. I can think of no good reason to do so other than to avoid losing the cap, but it ruins so many pens. Many folk say they need to post because they have large hands. No they haven’t . I take a Z+3 wedding ring. I have large hands. I never, ever, need to post. Posting a pen is the best way I can think of to scratch the finish on a pen. I collect fountain pens and have seen so many expensive ones spoilt by posting of the cap.
I don’t post either and before I was afflicted with arthritis I could use any pen. I’ve seen joiners with work-broadened hands writing with a tiny stub of a pencil. Hand and pen size aren’t related.