"a Treasure" Ink Pen Nib

[JohnRich]

I'm volunteering on an archeology dig of a cistern on a historic home site in Texas. One of the things that turned up last weekend was an ink pen nib. It has "A Treasure" engraved on it in cursive script. The vent hole is in the shape of a heart. Photo attached. (Ignore the white bead in that photo - that's an unrelated item.)

I can't find any info about this item on the internet. I would love to be able to assign a date range to it. Most of what we're finding comes from 1890 to 1930. Can anyone tell me what company made this nib, and what years it might have been manufactured?

 

Along with the nib was an empty bottle of Higgin's Inks, from Brooklyn, NY. We've got that bottle identified. The ink bottle and pen nib should make a good display in a museum!

 

- John Rich

 

[JohnRich]

Here are two photos of the ink bottle found in the same place as the pen nib.

[sidthecat]

I'd say something like the first three decades of the twentieth century. It looks like a fountain pen nib, rather than a dip pen.

 

Would anyone else like to take a crack at it? I vaguely recall seeing that brand on ebay - which suggests that they made a ringtop.

[AAAndrew]

That looks just like the nibs made by a host of companies, including some of the big dip nib makers, in the 30’s as either a dip nib meant to go with a feed, or without one, or even in cheap fountain pens. I’d say a range of 1925-1940.

[JohnRich]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Your dates match the majority of artifacts we're finding in the cistern, so that would fit well.

 

Who has the pen that Thomas Jefferson used to write the Declaration of Independence?

[AAAndrew]

Im sure he used a quill. They didnt last long so Im sure its long gone. The earliest evidence that Jefferson used steel pens was from 1808.

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9847483/1809_williamson_extensive_ad_with/

 

Peregrine Williamson was most likely the first American to make a living at making steel pens.

 

But the Smithsonian does have Jeffersons writing desk on which he wrote the Declaration of Independence. http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_513641

Edited October 18, 2017 by AAAndrew