Pelikan With Provenance

[dubhe]

Last year I bought a 400 on eBay, it required cleaning but is now a lovely pen with flexible fine nib. It had a German name engraved on it and last night I decided to google it to see if I could find any history.

 

It turns out that the name was a false name given to a KGB spy working in Germany in the mid 1950s who undertook several assassinations before defecting in the early 60s. I can find no other trace of this name for that period, and as the 400 was in production at the exact same time as this spy was building his life in this name, I think it must have been his. After he defected he was imprisoned for the murders and then given a new identity and asylum overseas, I assume therefore that the pen was left behind along with his false name.

 

I might stop using the pen as a daily writer now...

[praxim]

You do not know it was his.

 

And, so what?

 

I think no more about not using a "tainted" poduct than I do of preferring a "celebrity" product, not that I have either to my knowledge. Either way, what happens while you do not know? Is that retrospectively shocking or delightful? They are similar responses to random associations, without further meaning.

[dubhe]

Usually when one buys a pen from eBay you have no idea of it's previous ownership, so this story to me gives an impression of the world at the time of its manufacture. I find it interesting, and maybe coincidental, but still worth sharing.

[praxim]

I am often interested in provenance and thought your story interesting. I was responding to your closing line about perhaps no longer using an excellent pen.

[dubhe]

Just as I keep my Limited Edition Montblanc's for occasional use and my stock M800 and 146 inked and ready to go at all times, the 400 now moves from the easily replaceable pile to the velvet lined drawer.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Name of Spy?

[dubhe]

Bohdan Stashynsky / Josef Lehrmann

[Bo Bo Olson]

You are not going to use a semi-flex....it is right???? Not a D or H nib??? Tortoise!!!!!!!!!

 

Nib width on the pen????

 

Well, it was part of his cover, ***in he'd not been able to afford a $12 pen back then. In the Russians were very underpaid. Wouldn't have it in his cover's name either.

 

The days of 4 to one or even 4.20 to 1 DM. When a Snorkel the King of Pens cost $12 also.

 

***Remember to ask twice as much if you sell it. It is historical.

Edited May 28, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[chromantic]

That's an awesome story, one which you should get a lot of mileage from. Of course, preface it with "I can't be sure it's the same person ..." - scrupulously honest, plus that actually adds to the mystery, so win-win.

 

Realistically, though, I'd think Lehrmann is a not uncommon name (which is what you'd want in a cover name) so you basically have the German version of Joe Miller, could be the spy but more likely to just be some average guy.

[dubhe]

It's a F nib, flexing to BB.

 

The name is only traceable for the same period to a victim of the holocaust, so the name could have been borrowed deliberately from someone's records recently expired.

 

If nothing else, the pen was definitely new at the time of my story, so whoever bought it was around at the same time. And Stashynsky was a teacher so might have had a thing for pens.

 

We have a saying at work, never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

[sargetalon]

I always love learning about a pen's history. I look at these vintage makes and wonder, "who used you and for what?" Most of the time we never know. You're story is compelling but without a photo of him holding the pen or some other documentation, all we have is supposition. Still, it's more of a story than most pens get to tell and, as you say, let's not let the truth ruin the story. Still a great pen at the end of the day and one that I could continue to happily use.

[DrCodfish]

This to me sounds like the preface to a really good spy/mystery novel, or even a series of novels. One cold be about Stashynsky/Lehrmann. The sequel could possibly be about life in the concentration camps for the holocaust victim/mysterious survivor, once he returns to post war life and learns about the spy who has assumed his identity. The third in the series address the resolution of the contact/conflict between Stashynsky and Lehrmann.

 

I have a 1922 Parker 'Big Red' Duofold that looks and writes about as if must have when it was new, I have often wondered where this pen has been and who has used it for what purposes. This pen as lived through the depression,a world war, the invention of so much technology, think of all the things it must have been used for, a mute time capsule. Sure it could have been rolling around in the same desk drawer for the last 95 years, however I prefer to think otherwise. If only this pen cold talk, or at least re-write all it has written in it's fascinating life.

 

I have plotted this story: The pen starts life as a graduation gift, rises in station dramatically for a few years and then falls on hard times during the great depression. It then is is involved in some great nation building efforts through the WPA, and then comes WWII, ... and on and on. But the story of Stashynsky promises a much more suspenseful tale.

[inkstainedruth]

Even if it turns out not to be true, it's a great story.

I have a few pens that are engraved. In one case, I was able to track the name down to a jewelry store in Canonsburg, PA from the 1940s or 1950s. Don't know if it was the owner's pen (it was a Wearever that someone gave me) or whether it was just the store imprint, but at least there's *some* provenance (the store is long gone, and there's an antiques shop in the location -- I keep meaning to stop in there sometime to show the people in the store the pen. In another case I hit a dead end, sadly -- I'd like to someday tell the person's descendants that the pen is still in use (it's a 1937 Parker Vacumatic Red Shadow Wave, which I bought two summers ago in the PCA auction at DCSS for a good price -- and I've had it constant rotation ever since and just refilled it again this morning.

It's going to be harder to track down info for a little Welsharp pen I bought a few weeks ago, because it only has initials.

Some people get creeped out by the concept of using a pen that has someone's name on it -- but I think it's interesting. After all -- when it's a vintage pen, the odds are pretty high that *someone* used to own it, unless it's clearly a case of being NOS.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

Having one's name engraved on a pen use to be a mark of Class.

 

Done when graduating HS, Collage, retiring or a wedding anniversary.

I do remember...and I moved around a lot as an Army brat, that there were a very few kids with their names on their pens in, Jr and Sr. High.........if I'd had my name on my Sheaffer School kid pen, I'd never needed to buy a Wearever or a Venus....or that ugly metal topped blaaa Esterbrook. Mine got stolen every year....same with the Jotter.

As long as you kept your Bic Top....it didn't get stolen.

 

I didn't notice any in collage in every one was ball point.

[Ernst Bitterman]

It may not be, in the strictest use of the word, provenance.

 

...but it is something better. That pen has legend.

[chromantic]

In 1959, Josef and Johann Lehrmann were awarded German patent DE1794890 for a garderobe.

 

A garderobe could variously be a storeroom for valuables, a toilet - "... latrines or garderobes would be built into a castle wall overhanging the ground or water below.", a wardrobe or a panel with coat hooks spaced across it that mounts on a wall - this is what comes up on amazon.de if you search "garderobe". I'd speculate the patent covers something of this type.

[dubhe]

Now I'm trying to link the two stories! Was the garderobe used to hide the bodies?

[captain1796]

So because it has a common German name, your assuming it's a Russian spy that you googled. I'm hopeful your not a prosecutor or police detective. While possible, it was his the chances are greater that it was not. Just be careful not to (bleep) your finger on the nib, it probably is tipped with poison. I assure you they didn't plant a spy in Germany and ask him to assume an uncommon name.

[chromantic]

Dubhe, while my previous comment simply stated a fact, the post was snarky and I apologize to you for that.

[inkstainedruth]

In 1959, Josef and Johann Lehrmann were awarded German patent DE1794890 for a garderobe.

 

A garderobe could variously be a storeroom for valuables, a toilet - "... latrines or garderobes would be built into a castle wall overhanging the ground or water below.", a wardrobe or a panel with coat hooks spaced across it that mounts on a wall - this is what comes up on amazon.de if you search "garderobe". I'd speculate the patent covers something of this type.

 

Wait -- the guys got a patent for something that had been around since the Middle Ages?

What the heck this this patent entail?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth