Combination Retractable Pen and Pencil
date: label: date made
content: late 18th century
notes: label: Description
content: This 3-3/4" ornate square silver handle has two slides. One extends a round holder in which a pencil lead appears to be inserted. (Similar instruments sometimes had pricking points for use in creating and duplicating engineering drawings.) The other slide extends a pen point.
label: Description
content: The top of the handle unscrews so that the user can adjust a ring collar marked with the first letters of the days of the week (in French): L, M, M, J, V, S, D. The ring sits atop 7 columns of 4–5 numbers (1, 8, 15, 22, 29; 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; and so on). By adjusting the ring, one can use these numbers as the calendar for any month. The dates of objects purchased with this writing instrument and the increasing availability of metal nibs suggest it was made in the late 18th century.
label: Description
content: References: Howard Dawes, <i>Instruments of the Imagination: A History of Drawing Instruments in Britain, 1600–1850</i> (n.p.: The Dawes Trust Ltd., 2009), 5.
label: Description
content: Sotheby & Company, Catalogue of a Collection of Scientific Instruments, the Property of the Late Henry Russel Wray, London, 1959 (a copy of the catalogue is in the accession file).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Europe
topic: label: Subject
content: Drawing Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Pens and Pencils
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content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.316934
label: accession number
content: 228694
label: catalog number
content: 316934
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pen
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: silver (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 cm x 1 cm x 9.5 cm; 13/32 in x 13/32 in x 3 3/4 in