Sherlock Holmes And Parker Duofold?

[NewPenMan]

talking about Cumberbatch's Holmes, here..

 

in one of the episodes, Holmes ID's the Duofold as a pen someone used to write something.

 

Holmes is known for amazing - sometimes fantastic - feats of deduction, but I'm curious, for real, whether the Duofold does actually leave a signature line?

Edited April 7, 2015 by NewPenMan

[Ron Z]

No

[Robinkeys]

Interestingly enough, despite the usual attention to detail by the BBC, Sherlock describes it as an "iridium nib". Well, anyone who is a true fountain pen lover will know that all fountain pens have iridium nibs.

[jar]

One of the really silly parts of the newer Holmes shows.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

He also noted that it had an "iridium nib", which was hardly a surprising deduction.

 

That show is very entertaining, but if you have a greater than average knowledge of some technical specialty, you're bound to catch little bits of nonsense in fiction. The writers probably just did some cursory reading, picked up a little terminology, and came up with something that would sound plausible to people who didn't know better.

[Flounder]

The Jeremy Brett version is my favourite. "The writing is poor...uneducated...written with a broad-nibbed pen. Very inferior ink" (the package contains a pair of human ears!).

[NewPenMan]

heh..

[NewPenMan]

The Jeremy Brett version is my favourite.

 

yeah. though I like robert downey/jude law, and cumberbatch/freeman, Jeremy Brett for me remains the Gold Standard of Holmeses.

 

Although...Only Downey's holmes is a physical bad-a$$; Conan Doyle's Holmes was skilled in some kind of martial arts; only Downey's Holmes rocks that angle of the Holmes character.

Edited April 8, 2015 by NewPenMan

[MarcS]

Basil Rathbone! from the days of black and white movies, the iconic (imo) Holmes was a frequent on-screen user of fountain pens (after all, that's what they had), and occasionally physically intimidating beyond the usual intellectual elegance.

[PS104]

+ for Basil Rathbone

Years ago I would look forward to Saturday night, light up my pipe and devour the Rathbone Holmes movie-of-the-night

Others may have portrayed him better but they trod in Rathbones footsteps

[penrivers]

I don't know, apparently Conan Doyle wrote his latest story about Holmes in 1914, but first Parker Duofold appeared in 1921, maybe I am wrong.

[httpmom]

"The writing is poor...uneducated...written with a broad-nibbed pen. Very inferior ink"

 

Thanks for this! My first date with my husband was a double feature Basil Rathbone Sherlock in an old movie house in Los Gatos. Since I was a big fan, it really impressed me that he would enjoy it as much as I. However, the Jeremy Brett version was a show we watched religiously...and I can't get enough of 'Cumbie' these days. Like fountain pens...I like to see new versions.

[Blue_Moon]

 

Jeremy Brett for me remains the Gold Standard of Holmes.

 

 

This says it all.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I don't know, apparently Conan Doyle wrote his latest story about Holmes in 1914, but first Parker Duofold appeared in 1921, maybe I am wrong.

According to Wikipedia (yes, I know) the last Holmes story by Conan Doyle appeared in 1927. From memory, though, the last Holmes story based on the chronology of the story itself was from 1914, with a somewhat elderly Holmes involved in counterintelligence on the eve of WWI, so that confirms your point. I can't recall if the original stories mentioned any sort of fountain pen, although they frequently mentioned handwriting, and even gave samples of it within the text.

[sakayume]

I've been listening to the radio plays and in one of the stories when they were trying to figure out what was written in a note Holmes noted that if the person had written with a pencil, an imprint would have been left on the page below, but if a pen had been used, it would be the blotter that would be likely to reveal the message.

 

My favourite Sherlock Holmes is the movie The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Mycroft was brilliant there. XD I don't care much for the most recent Holmes movies, though I did like BBC Sherlock (up to the third season which was a bit of a let down).

[Flounder]

For a real hoot, check out the Holmes material on Podbay FM. There's about a billion free radioplays from the oldendays, makes any boring drive/train journey fly by. I love the occasional hokey, earnest 1950's adverts for "hair tonic" etc.

[penrivers]

According to Wikipedia (yes, I know) the last Holmes story by Conan Doyle appeared in 1927. From memory, though, the last Holmes story based on the chronology of the story itself was from 1914, with a somewhat elderly Holmes involved in counterintelligence on the eve of WWI, so that confirms your point. I can't recall if the original stories mentioned any sort of fountain pen, although they frequently mentioned handwriting, and even gave samples of it within the text.

Good point, I am sorry for my monstrous English sintaxis, thanks for the clarification.

[Ron Z]

 

This says it all.

 

I never do the +1 thing. But I started reading the cannon of Sherlock Holmes in 7th grade, and was delighted when I found the book in a book store decades later. I still pick it up every couple of years and read it. IMO the Basil Rathbone/Nygel Bruce combination got it wrong. Watson couldn't be the bumbling fool that Bruce played. If he were, Holmes wouldn't have put up with him. I think that Brett had the piercing intellect and arrogance exactly right.

 

The idea that you an tell what the pen is by the line holds as much water as being able to tell the cigar by the ash. The ink might tell you something, but the line itself, nothing beyond the nib width.

 

BTW, Parker did an ad with Doyle quoted as saying that his Duofold was the perfect pen that he had been looking for... I think the one pictured was modern sea green flat top.

[Flounder]

 

I started reading the cannon of Sherlock Holmes in 7th grade, and was delighted when I found the book in a book store decades later.

"The Cannon of Sherlock Holmes" sounds like some kind of disastrous big-budget remake starring Vin Deisel and a Colt Python.

[Cob]

I'd like to put in a word for Peter Cushing's effort in The Hound of The Baskervilles with Nigel Stock as Watson.

 

I thought Cushing's performance was very good and he had exactly the right sort of ascetic face for the part.

Cob