There was a lively discussion a while back about what sort of pen JRR Tolkien used. At any rate, here is a scan from a book out of Tolkien's personal library as he was in the early stages of his academic career. I have scans of some notes and scraps that were in the book if folks are interested. The book was in German and was a resource in his research of Sir Gawain and the Green Dragon. It is now owned by my brother.

Michael

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Wow, would that be a flex nib?

Gee, if it was early in his career, he was already writing in Elvish. Lovely handwriting.

Looks like he might have already had the Gandalf character in his mind by then. (The three dots was Gandalf's mark.)

Certainly looks suspicious doesn't it! Though he was known to use a common pen holder with an Esterbrook #314 Relief steel nib made in England. They were given away free to professor's! And he tended to write on all sorts of scraps and on the backs of things. The thread on his pens is here.

Hard to tell for sure without seeing the original, but to me the lettering looks drawn.

-- Brian

Your right. Though I think it more likely he simly gave Gandalf something he (Tolkien) was already fond of jotting down himself.

Thanks for that! Very interesting. Your brother is one lucky collector. If you have any more scans, I for one would very much like to see them.

Sig

My guess is the nib is a slightly flexible stub. The start of the numbers 2 and 3 look like a broad edged pen made them, with a downward serif added afterwards. The 9 as well has something of a broad edged pen look to it, the top is flat and thin and the long downstroke has considerable width. A quill with a worn edge is also possible!

My 2c anyway and possibly rather wrong.

Congrats to your brother, a nice piece of history