Anu Pink Estonian Knitting 2: Socks & Stockings Saara Publishing House (2018, Türi, Estonia) 36.80€; isbn: 978-9949-7268-2-0 384 pages, illustrations, photos, diagrams; hardcover. With the huge popularity of knitting, hundreds of books are published on the subject each year. Many of them are similar, and our eyes begin to glaze over just looking at them […]
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Scriptus Toronto Retirement
As many of you know, for the past four years I have been heavily involved in the creation and organization of Scriptus, Toronto’s Pen & Writing Show. It has been with great pride that I have seen it grow to nearly 100 exhibitors this year, from across the continent, with over 1,000 visitors enjoying the […]
Solved: Who Made the Pens of Birks Jewellers?
Like most Canadian jewellers at the turn of the twentieth century, Henry Birks & Sons, of Montréal, sold pens. While they don’t often turn up today, occasionally we have one cross our repair bench. While a Birks pen is usually not of the highest quality, they are good, solid pens, usually with the nice flexible […]
Free Victorian Pen Catalogue Online
Information is gold; sometimes more than figuratively. We came across a lovely Victorian pen catalogue in our favourite collection, archive.org. Titled, in fine Victorian fashion, History of the invention and illustrated process of making Foley’s diamond pointed gold pens with complete illustrated catalogue[…] The first half of the book is an excellent catalogue of Foley’s […]
A Few Changes
You may have noticed: we’ve been a bit quiet around here. But it’s for good reason. The pen business is booming in Canada, and in Toronto specifically. This, however, has had a bit of an impact on our online presence. Since Scriptus, last November (which is how we date things around here), we have been […]
What We Can Learn From a Copper Pearl Frankenpen
We came across an interesting pen the other day, “in the wild”, which is to say in an antiques mall. Not exactly a beautiful pen: not in great condition, nor very valuable, in terms of dollar value. But a pen which is important for a couple of reasons. Some Background: the Parkette Deluxe The Parker […]
