The Longest Pen?

August 9, 2008

Dear Friends...

This is a unique pen from the range of pens made by Deccan Pen Stores, Hyderabad. It is called the 2-in-1 Ruler Pen (I do not know whether it has any other specific brand name) and it must have served as a great utility tool at one point of time. As you can see, this ebonite rod contains two pens – one at each end. This is designed as a desk pen. One pen was supposed to contain blue ink and the other red. And this 2-in-1 pen also doubles as a ruler to help users draw straight lines for margins, etc. It served people like lawyers, bureaucrats, etc., (at one point of time) who needed to use both colour inks to make notes, make corrections, etc. This must have been a common pen in colonial and early post independent government offices in India. The pen is about 14 inches in length – both pens capped, 10 inches with one pen capped, and either pen is 6 ½ inches uncapped. As this is a desk pen, it doesn’t have a pocket clip. If at all anyone wants to carry it along, they would have to carry it in a long enough bag or a flute case! The one displayed here has 2 fountain pens, but this model also comes with an FP at one end, to be filled with blue ink usually, and a ball pen at the other, with a red ink refill. Guider also produces a similar pen, with a FP at one end and a BP at the other, and the ends are helpfully marked in red (FP) and blue (BP).

I had seen this pen at DPS many times before and Hari had bought a mottled brown one with an FP and a BP at either ends on his last visit to Hyderabad and had shown it to me. I was not too keen as I didn’t know what I’d do with this pen. And then when I visited the Secunderbad Branch of DPS around 5 days back to buy Advocates for my brothers, I also bought a Pelkan (Hari has also posted on this) and 2 Onyx-es, and then out of the blue, the salesman there took out this pen and offered it to me. The pen looked good and I liked the mottled design on this pen, which is not streaky, but kind of loopy. I then inspected the FPs and thought ‘why not’ and bought it. I have written with both pens and I must say they write very well. The nibs are called ‘Preema.’

I feel that if both pens can be made as BPs, then this pen can also be used as a pointer. Unless one is a regular pen user with lots of paper work to do and has a large enough desk, this pen can only be an ornamental piece. But, if one is crazy enough about FPs, one can always find excuses to buy this pen…like I did. This is not an antique pen (only the style is) and can be manufactured by any good pen-maker with ebonite stock. But, this pen’s value lies in its unique usefulness and the ingenuity of the first pen manufacturer or user who thought of something like this. This particular pen does not have the usual ‘D’ logo that one normally finds in DPS pens, which kind of makes the pen look bland. Here are some photos...

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/DSC01214.jpg

The 2-in-1 full length with scale

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/DSC01226.jpg

The 2-in-1 pen full length

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/DSC01215.jpg

Both pens uncapped with the centre double cap

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/DSC01219.jpg

Nibs of both pens

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/DSC01220.jpg

One pen capped, one uncapped with scale

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/DSC01221.jpg

The end design (both ends have this)

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/DSC01222.jpg

Section and nib sideview

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/DSC01223.jpg

One pen uncapped

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/DSC01229.jpg

Writing sample

Hope you enjoyed the photos…

Thank you,

Jai (Jayasrinivasa Rao)

Edited August 9, 2008 by shrujaya

August 9, 2008

You and Hari are constantly making me jealous, wishing I could go on a shopping spree in an Indian pen shop! What a bizarre and wonderful pen! (Steve - can you import a couple of these??) Thanks for posting the photos...

Tom