I recently came upon a 14 karat gold mechanical pencil and thought I'd share it with you. It's the first time I see anything like this but have since found a few similar pencils for sale on ebay. Some info refers to this as a pendant. Cool, eh?
Here's a closed up view.
Now tugged open a bit.
And here fully extended.
The tip twists to extend and retract the 2mm graphite.
Fully twisted out reveals an inner collet for mounting the graphite.
Here's the manufacturer's mark.
Wow! Would you believe that I actually own one, too? Mine is sterling silver and dates back to the Victorian era. It is quite ornate with raised filigree detailing. I also have the matching miniscule note pad (also a pendant) that looks like a tiny book, held shut with an even tinier pencil. Both belonged to my great grandmother and were given to me when I was a child- I was fascinated with them then and still love them today!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of silver, I wondered if you are at all familiar with the centuries old technique of silverpoint? It is a medium of unique beauty (and given your passion for fine pencil lines), it uses super sharpened points of real silver mounted to a stylus and worked on a prepared surface, usually of white gouache. The level of detail achieved with this method is extraordinary! It could be fun for you to try this out sometime- I have tried it and liken it to a cross between pencil and ink work. There's a fair amount of info on the web - here's a little "gallery" of silverpoint work through the ages:
http://www.biddingtons.com/content/silverpoint.html
enjoy!
~gretchen
Oh, for sure I believe that you have one! :-) Those pieces must be beautiful. I love stories of family jewelry.
ReplyDeleteI've seen a bit on metalpoint but didn't realize how easy it could be to try it out. I now have a bottle of Golden Silverpoint/Drawing Ground in my dickblick cart, ready for the next order. Golden has a nice little video on their site.
Sigh...I really must get to grocery shopping...I'd sure rather just stay home and play. A new drawing finally gets posted later today.