The Universe of Writing Culture
take the law into your hands
Magna Carta by David Oscarson 100 years young
Caran d’Ache celebrates its roots meet the marvelous
Montblanc M you’ve been
INKED IN! PW’s Fall Preview awaits...
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OCTOBER VOLUME 28, NUMBER 6
ON OUR COVER: Magna Carta by David Oscarson
85 INKED IN!
Spoiler alert: our 23rd Annual Fall Preview of Pens will leave you breathless.
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a visit to Ellison Wonderland You won’t find the Mad Hatter here—just a legendary writer and thousands of pens.
52 Lamy’s gateway pen
After 35 years, the Safari is still introducing thousands to fountain pens.
60 inside Omas
Come along on a factory tour of the venerable Italian brand.
70 first class
Master Penman Michael Sull certifies the first wave of American Cursive teachers.
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78 aging gracefully
Looking good at 100, Caran d’Ache is celebrating every aspect of its history.
82 M is for modern
The Marc Newson–designed Montblanc M looks to the future.
74 Magna Carta, cum laude
David Oscarson honors the beginning of the rule of law.
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Not only perfect writing instruments, but also your own museum that is always with you. One-of-a-kind & limited edition pens. Custom ordered pens and desk sets. www.artuspen.ru • artuspen@inbox.ru TEL: +7-4932-478-111
ow that I’m in my 20th year with PW, this issue represents the 20th time I have become convinced that Christmas really does come in July. That’s because July is the magical month when we begin to see the new pens that will make up our annual Fall Preview, the special section included in the issue you are holding. Each year in our Fall Preview, the pen brands bring out their fall finery for all to see, drool over, and buy! Our theme this year is Inked In, partly to emphasize the function of pens as writing tools and also to evoke thoughts of LinkedIn, the Internet business networking platform. Handwritten communication, after all, has been linking people much longer than the Internet! The explosion of color on our front cover is the new Magna Carta from David Oscarson. It celebrates the law, as a complement to the brand’s recent pen in honor of the medical profession, the Alexander Fleming. Learn about it on pp. 74–77. Also in this issue, read about Caran d’Ache’s centennial celebration, a new collection from Montblanc aimed at a new kind of pen user, and the enduring appeal of the Lamy Safari and its aluminum cousin, the AL-star. The article on Lamy, by Reinhard Kargl, kicks off a new series
we’re calling EDC—meaning “everyday carry”—about inexpensive but excellent workhorse pens. Find out about contributing editor Deborah Basel’s experience in a certification program for teachers of Master Penman Michael Sull’s American Cursive handwriting; go shopping with us at Engravably Yours in New York and Wonder Pens in Toronto, Ontario; visit the Omas factory in Bologna, Italy; and meet legendary writer Harlan Ellison, who—you guessed it!—just happens to be a pen collector. Also not to be missed is Julian Kreeger’s article about nib testing kits of the past and present. Richard Binder is taking a welldeserved breather this issue, but he will be back in December. In this column in last year’s October issue, I profoundly thanked all the writers who make PW possible. We couldn’t do it without them! And if you know anything about magazine economics, you probably also know we couldn’t do this without our advertisers and the faith they place in us to reach the people who love, purchase, and use pens. That’s you. And by you, I mean you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
editor@penworld.com
War II as the first world-wide expression of the inherent rights possessed by all human beings. In honor of the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, David Oscarson releases a collection of limited edition writing instruments named for the ground-breaking charter. Oscarson sees the collection as a natural followup to his Alexander Fleming limited edition, released earlier this year, which was an homage to the medical and research communities. Magna Carta celebrates the rule of law and the profession that upholds it. Says Oscarson: “I wanted to do a tribute to our friends in the legal field—the people who stand beside us at some of the most difficult times in our lives.” The new collection, David Oscarson’s 24th limited edition, is composed of sterling silver with guilloché engraving and multiple layers of hard enamel, characteristics of the brand’s entire oeuvre. The most prominent design feature is the British flag—the Union Jack—wrapping around the cap in translucent hard enamel so that the guilloché engraving underneath can be seen. On the barrel is the United States flag in opaque hard enamel. And there is another U.S.–British connection: Oscarson is based in the United
States, but his workshop is located in England; thus, a British hallmark appears on each piece to certify the country of their manufacture. Opposite the American flag, on the other side of the barrel, appears the most famous section of Magna Carta, article 39, in Latin: Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut disseisiatur, aut utlagetur, aut exuletur, aut aliquo modo destruatur; nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum vel per legem terre. Or, in English: “No free man shall be seized, or imprisoned, or disseized of land, or outlawed, or in any way destroyed; nor will we condemn him, nor will we commit him to prison, excepting by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the laws of the land.” There you have it—an expression of the right to due process and the seedling concept of a jury system, eight centuries ago. As a sidenote, Britain’s Royal Mint issued a £2 commemorative coin that depicts King John holding a quill in his right hand, ostensibly to sign the charter, and a scroll in the other. While the document itself was 75
One of four surviving copies of the 1215 Magna Carta. This copy is one of two held at the British Library. It came from the collection of Sir Robert Cotton, who died in 1631. In 1731, a fire at Ashburnam House in Westminster, where his library was then housed, destroyed or damaged many of the rare manuscripts, which is why there is evidence of burn marks on this copy. This image was retrieved from Wikimedia Commons and is in the public domain.
written with a quill, kings used seals, not signatures, to signify their acceptance of treaties. The depiction of a quill on the coin was criticized as a “schoolboy error” by Dr. Marc Morris, a medieval historian and author of King John: Treachery, Tyranny, and the Road to Magna Carta, but the Mint has defended its representation as symbolic rather than literal. Those familiar with David Oscarson’s work know that he tries to achieve as much accuracy as possible given the medium in which he works, and that is why you’ll see, at the top of the cap of his Magna Carta, a depiction of King John’s primary seal—the one he would have used to ratify Magna Carta in 1215—with the king’s secondary seal at the end of the barrel. Appropriately, England planned quite a celebration during the 800th anniversary with hundreds of special events for all age and interest groups. Highlights included an appearance of Queen Elizabeth II in June at festivities in Runnymede, where the original charter was sealed, and the display of all four surviving copies of the 1215 charter at the British Library in February. A website specifically for the 800th anniversary activities, 76
magnacarta800th.com, billed the celebration as “the global event to which the whole world is invited.” There has also been a heightened interest in research into the unanswered questions about Magna Carta, and how it was disseminated. There was never one “original” document of Magna Carta—rather, copies were made and sent throughout the land. Who made them and who preserved them so carefully that any still survive—the four from 1215 plus 13 others from later versions? Research is ongoing, and answers are being found. But probably the most important question is one that can easily be answered today, and which the David Oscarson Magna Carta so beautifully addresses. “How does Magna Carta affect me?” Only three of the original 63 clauses in the 1215 Magna Carta remained in the document as it evolved— many articles had no relevance outside the immediate time and place of the charter’s origin. But article 39, inscribed on the barrel of the pen, did live on because of its obvious relevance and application to all people. Magna Carta was well known to American colonists, who incorporated its principles into their founding
The Magna Carta Collection will be offered in four color variations: with barrels in opaque black, and translucent red, white, or blue enamel. The black version has silver trim, while the red, white, and blue versions are accented with gold vermeil.
documents. The fifth amendment of our Constitution guarantees that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” a principle that comes directly from article 39. It set the stage for the rule of law. The great irony of Magna Carta is that that King John—he of Robin Hood fame, viewed by many historians as the most cruel and most inept in English history—ever agreed to it. Of course he never intended to enforce it, but by placing his seal upon it, he unwittingly gave life to new ideas that were very much at odds with his own. So from an inept king came one of the most important documents in human history, one that today is cause for international celebration. No wonder it has been called “Britain’s best export to the rest of the world.” See Magna Carta in the United States
The National Archives houses a copy of Magna Carta from 1297, the year it entered the statute books. It prompted the first visit to the Archives by Charles, Prince of Wales, in March. To learn more, visit magnacarta800th.com and magnacartaresearch.org. Visit davidoscarson.com 77
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