Osmiroid Calligraphy Set
1970s
About This Model
English fountain pen manufacturers, covered the range from excellent and exclusive to budget/low quality, just as those seen from other countries. The best-known English budget brands included names like Croxley, Dickinson, Mentmore, Burnham, Valentine. They were almost all button-filled, made of celluloid (although some, like Conway Stewart, used casein in the lean pre-WWII years.
About This Pen
Occasionally, offbeat items appear in a box of pens, having waited patiently for their chance. That moment arrived recently for this 1970s Osmiroid calligraphy set. Osmiroid is one of the oldest pen companies, a major manufacturer of nibs since before 1850 and, with Esterbrook in the US, the major sources of dip and professional drawing nibs through the end of WWII. Osmiroid was an independent company for 150 years, until Berol took them over in 1989. This set of one lever-filled pen and six calligraphy nibs (Italic fine/medium, italic extra-fine, italic fine, italic medium (2), italic broad) shows no evidence of having been used and is certainly “new old store stock”. The pen is in black injection-molded plastic, and after some refurbishment is shiny and new. Osmiroid nibs and pens have a second advantage: they are perfect fits for Esterbrook nibs and pens (and vice versa)! Thus, an Esterbrook SJ of any available color, with a fine or medium nib, can easily be added to go with the Osmiroid and the six nibs (just ask for a color and picture). A perfect first fountain pen for an new school year present. Special: add that Esterbrook SJ for $25 have complete convertibility!
Price: $40 Sold