A Grail in the Wild. Edward Todd silver overlay wet noodle.

Ever since starting this blog I have hinted on a post focusing on me finding a grail pen in the wild. I have never seen one of these on Ebay and never really anywhere else either. I have seen some similar Watermans and Mabie Todds. But never an Edward Todd BHR clipless, silver overlay pen. I am going to make a post about this pen on FPN as well, so we’ll see if I get any interesting comments or more information (please comment if you have any information!).

I found this pen in a truly sumgai way, maybe not technically in the wild since it was on the Swedish equivalent of Ebay. The main item of the auction was an extremely ugly and broken (!) ceramic pen stand glazed in a hideous beige-light brown-grey colour, “some pens included”. The pens were huddled in a miserable heap in the shadow of the monstrous pen stand. I took a chance and made a bid. I won the whole lot for less than 20 dollars (shipping included). Amazing, I can hardly believe it myself.

The metal is slightly discoloured at the breathing holes (two in the cap) resistant to polish. The BHR has become brown/olive with age. I did polish the silver (marked sterling on the cap). The pen is not marked except for STERLING printed on the barrel.

Here is a writing sample in my own bastardized Spencerian/Copperplate/nonsense scribble…

Yes! I misspelled “whiskey’s”, due to making a jumble of the last three letters…

Pen: Edward Todd silver overlay pen. Nib no 2. I dare claim this is a wet noodle. It does railroad sometimes, but not in writing the sample above. It is (of course) an eyedropper.
Computer manipulation: Exposure +0.25. Removal of stuff from left hand corner and top middle (not engaging the text).
Ink: J Herbin Cacao du Bresil. I love the shading.
Room for Improvement: I could still use some practise to perfect the readability and the flourish detailing. I would also like to have more continuity in my lines and lettering, making the end result more orderly. On the other hand, I do like a little irregularity and whimsiness as well.
Verdict: Instant feeling of I-am-not-worthy-ness and joy.

Close-up on the nib (click on the image to see it REALLY big).

One more pic (just because it is so wonderfully gorgeous)

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Header, Mabie Todd Blackbird and Burma Road Brown

Important Notice: “Anachroneironaut” is a bloody long name for a blog when you carefully make a header in pseudo-calligraphy and then commence cleaning up the lines in the computer. Just thought I’d inform you of that.

(Current) Header

Pen and ink used to create header

Title: Header, Mabie Todd Blackbird and Burma Road Brown
Size: ca 4 x 15 cm (header).
Equipment: Text: Mabie-Todd Blackbird semi-flex lever-filler with Noodler’s Burma Road Brown. One of my favourite inks at the moment. Ordered it from Goulet Pens, recommended!
Computer alteration: Removal of background and a slight change in colour intensity and brightness/contrast (the scanned header) and heightening of brightness (the photographs). These pictures are an excellent example how different the same ink can look in different circumstances. The header is scanned and the intensity of the colour is heightened a bit. I have made no changes in hue or colour balance! The photograph is taken in natural light (with my digital camera, Casio Ex-H15). Looks like two different inks altogether… The true colour (looking at my own screen anyway) lies somewhere in between and is heavily dependent on the paper and light conditions. But it is definitly a warm colour.
Paper: Same ol’ Seawhite of Brighton.
Inspiration: I started writing down my dreams when I was 11 years old, in a book I got from my aunt. A brown book with a fish on it. Some of the time I had lucid dreams . Over the years I have been more or less good at writing down my dreams and working on lucid dreaming, but I have always had a dreamjournal. A lucid dreamer is sometimes called an Oneironaut – one who walks in dreams. I have a fascination for time-travelling as well as timelessness and times past. To me, an anachronaut is a person who enjoy exploring anachronism.
A fascination that is bigger than either of the above ones is words. I have a slight case of synasthesia and I love the the very concept of putting words together to add to and change the meaning of them. Anachroneironaut is practically impossible to spell, but I couldn’t help it. I had to make it my own.

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