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Image 1 — Barnes's Natural Slant Penmanship, no. 6 (1900). Not as slanted as Palmer/Zaner-Bloser business penmanship.
Image 2 — Barnes's Natural Slant Penmanship, no. 6 (1900). Not as slanted as Palmer/Zaner-Bloser business penmanship.
Image 3 — Barnes's Natural Slant Penmanship, no. 6 (1900). Not as slanted as Palmer/Zaner-Bloser business penmanship.
Image 4 — Barnes's Natural Slant Penmanship, no. 6 (1900). Not as slanted as Palmer/Zaner-Bloser business penmanship.
▲ 66 r/PenmanshipPorn

Barnes's Natural Slant Penmanship, no. 6 (1900). Not as slanted as Palmer/Zaner-Bloser business penmanship.

Zaner and Bloser in The Zanerian Theory of Penmanship, 1894, page 166: "Nearly all defenders of the slope systems said they never put much stress upon slant, and that they did not consider it of much importance. Yet, in the next breath, they would attempt to argue against anything that did not agree with 52°, and proclaim it "un-American." Whereas, anyone at all familiar with the literature of penmanship, knows that slant has been considered a very essential element in good writing; so much so that teachers have been known to quibble for hours at a time as to the relative merits of fifty-one or fifty-two degrees - a portion of a circle so small that not one out of one hundred could distinguish it with the eye unaided by a rule."

u/penpoints — 2 days ago
▲ 17 r/dippens

I think most of these are "silver finish" versions of other Esterbrook nibs. For example the 914 is the 14 Bank Pen. Catalog info from 1918.

u/penpoints — 4 days ago
▲ 14 r/dippens

Esterbrook 914 Radio Pen box, with portrait of Richard Esterbrook.

u/penpoints — 4 days ago
▲ 39 r/PenmanshipPorn

The Normal Review System of Writing: Vertical Copies, no. 9, by D. H. Farley and W. B. Gunnison, 1894. Brilliant penmanship by Ada Olsen.

u/penpoints — 4 days ago
▲ 166 r/PenmanshipPorn

Barnes's National Vertical Penmanship, copybook no. 7, published in 1899. Penmanship by Anna Williams, Sept 1901.

u/penpoints — 6 days ago
▲ 127 r/PenmanshipPorn

The Educational System of Round-Hand Vertical Writing, pub. 1897. Handwriting practice by a young student, Edna P. Erskine, from 1899 (date in pencil).

u/penpoints — 8 days ago
▲ 65 r/PenmanshipPorn

Another copybook, 1897. One of the oddities of vertical penmanship is that a "perfect" 90-degree, no-slant script can look slightly backhand. There is also a tendency to slip into actual backhand. You can correct for this by using a slight forward pitch, which makes the writing seem truly vertical.

u/penpoints — 9 days ago
▲ 36 r/dippens

Another box of vintage Esterbrook no. 442 Jackson Stub nibs. These left-oblique nibs are exceptionally smooth writers and should last a long time.

u/penpoints — 9 days ago
▲ 49 r/PenmanshipPorn

"Going Nutting." Letter/note by Cora Smith, Sunbury, Pennsylvania, Jan. 8, 1899. Example of vertical penmanship by a young person in 1899. It's very legible, but with a few old-fashioned letterforms, especially C and L.

u/penpoints — 11 days ago
▲ 110 r/PenmanshipPorn

Vertical Penmanship was a big deal in the late 1890s. It could be done with shading, like Spencerian, etc., or as a plain monoline hand. It was taught in lots of schools. But some penmanship experts - especially A. N. Palmer - did not like it, and eventually it went out of fashion.

u/penpoints — 13 days ago
▲ 28 r/dippens+1 crossposts

The vintage Gillott no. 303 - bronze finish, ground lengthwise near the hole, crosswise below that. And the current model - black finish, stamped grooves. Also the Leonardt Principal (grooves) and 2 very old nibs: Zanerian Fine Writer and Gillott Principality no. 1.

u/penpoints — 14 days ago
▲ 26 r/dippens

La mémoire des Sergent-Major

The previous advertising cartoon is from a great book: La mémoire des Sergent-Major, by Jean-Pierre Lacroux & Lionel Van Cleem (1988). It's in French, but it's filled with eye candy for collectors of vintage pen nibs. 218 pages, hundreds of illustrations, and lots of color. Currently it's out of print, but there are some used copies out there at reasonable prices.

u/penpoints — 17 days ago
▲ 39 r/dippens+1 crossposts

The Pip-Squeak Pen

Advertising from E.S. Perry. Source: La mémoire des Sergent-Major, by Jean-Pierre Lacroux & Lionel Van Cleem, 1988.

u/penpoints — 17 days ago
▲ 27 r/dippens

The early Eagle nibs were very high quality, like their pencils.

u/penpoints — 17 days ago
▲ 56 r/dippens+1 crossposts

Parallel Pen ("Parallel-Feder") from Friedrich Soennecken, circa 1880.

u/penpoints — 19 days ago
▲ 17 r/Calligraphy

"The Little Wizard of Lettercraft." Ad from 1925, in The Business Educator. There were still only 3 Speedball nib styles. The D-style was introduced in 1926.

u/penpoints — 21 days ago
▲ 24 r/dippens

It was a beautiful romance. "All the colors of the rainbow," and 2 different blacks. Available in 2-ounce jars, pints, and QUARTS. Early 20th century. (Second image shows back cover of the Speedball Textbook, 11th edition, 1929.)

u/penpoints — 21 days ago
▲ 25 r/dippens

The Falcon 048 was Esterbrook's bestselling nib. A wholesale catalog from 1918 had six different versions. ("Tar coated" = black finish.)

u/penpoints — 23 days ago