This collection pulls together two of my major interests - calligraphy and graphic design. It is part of a larger collection of writing ephemera, but these made a good starting point. The collection started out because I was looking for old nibs to use (the best are much better than anything produced today) but I gradually became more interested in the packaging. This linked it to a smaller collection of ink bottles - I have a lot more of these, but most have lost their labels. For me, a major part of collecting is doing it on a small budget. Only two or three of these items cost more than $20, none more than $50. I also like the fact that most these items have been used, and been around ink. As such, if there are stains or scratches, they are part of the items history, and I still buy it. Hence not all the items here are pristine, but I like them for their imperfections. It is hard to date the collection. A few items, like the quills are probably nineteenth century, but most come, I think, from the first half of the twentieth. Dip pens went largely out of fashion by the 60's, and so there is very little here that would postdate that.
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