An Early Esterbrook Dip Pen Sample Card

[AAAndrew]

Here's a fun sample card of Esterbrook's "Legal Pens" that I've dated to roughly between 1876-1890. If you want to see how I came up with that dating, I have a short post over in the Pen History forum explaining my methodology. 

 

Cheers!

Andrew

 

[Estycollector]

Thank you @AAAndrew

[carlos.q]

Why were they called “legal pens”? Because they were used by lawyers?  🤔

[AAAndrew]

Yes, in a way. This was really just marketing. The 048 Falcon was a general purpose pen, and the bank pen was originally marketed at, well, banks. The engrossing pens, basically italic pens, were sometimes used for the formal titling of legal documents in more of a Blackletter/Old-English style. 

 

Esterbrook also later produced the Lawyer's stub, the Judge's stub, etc... Basically, later, when stub pens were being made, Esterbrook introduced their first stub in 1871, they were marketed at those who wrote a lot and needed to write quickly for a living. The pens were often named for the occupation which might use it. Here are a few names of different pens just from a quick glance at my collection inventory: Bank Pen, Commercial Pen, School Pen, Bookkeeper's Pen, Judge's Quill, College Pen, Ladies Falcon, Chancellor's Stub, Probate Pen, Postal Pen, Accountant, Barrister's Stub, Court House Pen, Cashier's Pen, etc...   

 

You find this more with American pens, whereas British pens tend to either describe the characteristic of the pen (Extra Fine, Oblique), or are given a name like Speedwell, Diamond Stud, Principality, or Croton Pen. But there are exceptions, just not as many occupation names in the UK as in the US.