Evening star., 1901-11-23
HISTORIC PENS.
Prices Paid for Those Used by Famou.
Men.

Prices Paid for Those Used by Famous
Men.
From the London Globe.
Although IL might be impossible to oh
tain for the Pen Museum the actual irnple-
ment used by st. Thecla of Isauria who
wrote out the entire Scriptures without a
blot or mistake. or the instrument men,
toned by Gill when he closed his biblical
commentary of some five or six hundred
quarto pages with the quatrain--
With one good pen I wrote this book,
Made of a gray goose quill;
pen II was when II took,
And pen have it still"
But If fortune was on the side of the curat-
or the fountain pen used by distinguished
author Of Irish extraction whose literary
output is over a million words year (yide
advertisements) might still be obtained.
At the Dslhousie sale few years ago a
quill pen used by the great Duke of We'll
lington was purchased for 5ly guineas. a
very modest price. considering the eminence
of the man who used 1t. He may have
penned with it, after the battle of Water
loo. the important memorandum to Marshal
Beresford, 81 never saw the British infan-
try behave so WELL" document which also
contains the Information that ''Bony is now
off to Rochefort"
Another pen was sold on the occasion of
the dispersal of Mr.. Beresford Hopes ef-
fects for f2l The price obtained for the
pen is Instructive, insomuch as IL compares
with the sum of 81 guineas obtained on the
same date for penholder comprising an
ivory handle, a silver holder. and a Quill
pen In ii that once belonged to Sir Walter
Scott, and confirms the impression that the
collector values the pen Of one who makes
his livelihood by its al higher rate
than that which is occasionally used by an
even greater celebrity. The pen of the pen
man is evidently more mighty than the pen
of the swordsman, fact that will doubt
less be written in letters Of gold over the
case in the museum of the future devoted
TO the pens of those war correspondents
who have obtained the best Of the argu-
ment when dealing with the military CEN
sor- Although large sums, amounting in
one instance to Ei0, have been given for
pens used by Charles Dickens the Earl of
Beaconsfield. and other literary lights in
Guiding Wordsworth, who i'm 1906, began a
letter to Lady Beaumont which. he stated
was the longest he ever wrote, a statement
that was unlikely to be refuted seeing that
II was eighteen pages in length.
There are perhaps but few pens in exist
ence that can vie in interest and import
ance with the implement with which the
treaty of Paris was signed in 1856, at the
conclusion of the Crimean war. On this
famous occasion the fourteen pleuipo-
tentiaTies assembled to sign the famous
document, every provision of which was to
be broken by the signatories ere fifteen
years had elapsed, used the same pen at
the special request of their hostess the
Empress Eugene, who desired to possess
SO interesting a souvenir Of an occasion
that promised to be important as any
save perhaps the incident at Runnymede
on which the signing of documents was the
sole object. When his holiness the pope
signs an encyclical letter, or delivers a
papa! bull. the implement used is a white
feathered quill taken from the wing of a
dove, which has now been in use, such is
the care OF 1t, for over four decades. 1t
was perhaps this custom that suggested to
the person designing the pen with which
the treaty OF Paris was signed a pen that
was mounted In gold and jeweled with dia-
monds, that Ii would be in keeping with the
emblems Of several of the chief signatortes
If the quill were drawn from the wing of a
golden eagle. At all events the bird in
question supplied the neces ssary nih The
instrument used by Queen Victoria to sign
the commission giving assent TO the COM
monwealth bill was also quill but one
culled from ordinary sources.
Since signing the treaty on the conclu-
sion of the war with Spain American col
lectors have been very eager to secure
famous pens in order to augment those
they already possess. This collection in
cludes two pens carved from the wood of a
box presented to George Washington
which box was itself made from the lid of
a desk once the property Of the captain of
the Maynower On the occasion of the
signing of the diplomatic instruments at
Paris in 1898, the hour being $50 pm and
the day December 10, a rather amusing
incident occurred. The commissioners of
that the seals, out of compliment to France
who had shown them great courtesy
should be affixed by tricolored ribbon.
for on search being instituted for the same
1t was found that the Quai dOrsai did not
boast an inch of the desired three colors
Nor was it forthcoming until a brilliant in
Spiratlon occurred to the head of a depart-
ment, and messenger was forthwith dis
patched with all haste to a certain confec-
tioner in the Rue St. Honore there to pur-
chase pound of chocolate and stipulate
that it should be tied up with a trf-coIored
ribbon-which ribbon now affixes the pri-
vate seal of each commissioner to the his
toric documents then signed in duplicate
The pens provided on this famous occa-
sion were ordinary quills and steel nibs
fixed In bamboo handles. When signing the
treaty with France in 1871 Bismarck used
a golden pen made specially for the occa-
sion, a present from some manufacturers of
Pforzheim. a place in Baden famous for its
jewelry work. With the appearance of this
famous pen the public has not been famil-
iariZed, but IL is very doubtful whether IL
could rival in beauty the gilden pen of ex-
quislte design, of which the chief feature
is the figure of Our Savior surnounting
canopy at the end of the pen, in the inches
OF which canopy are several beautifully
Sculptured figures. that the pilgrims of
southern Italy recently presented to the
pope This instrument. which was designed
by Signor Ingaldi in the Italian Gothic OF
the twelfth century, is ornamented with
precious stones, and is probably the most
beautiful penholder in existence, and Is
certainly one that would grace any rnu-
scum, let alone an institution solely devot-
ed to decrepit and worn-out pens.