A gift to myself for my birthday
Apr. 9th, 2010 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osodecanelaThey are our times I think I'm out of another era.
I learned to sew when I was a kid, not a major surprise given that both my grandfathers were tailors. My favorite of the three machines I have is my treadle (circa 1914). For gods sake, the thing will sew through leather, and works whether we have power or not & given where we live, where electricity can be spotty during the rainy season, that's a good thing.
I grew up very close to my grandparents. Now while none of them were Luddites, they did not jump to new technology if the old stuff is still working functionally. I don't think any of them ever replaced the ancient heavy Bakelite wall phones in their apartments. My father joked they constituted a defensive weapon. The image of my 4'10" grandmother, turned Valkyrie, handset swinging by its cord above her head is something I've never ever been able to shake out of my head!
In our family milestones were often marked by a like a fine pen or a gold watch. When my folks got engaged, mom's parents gave my father a gold Longine, which he wore the day they got married (and which I wore when LJ and I exchanged our vows). My uncle gave me a Cross desk set when I finished college and my parents gave me a Mont Blanc rollerball when I graduated from medical school.
I've wanted an antique Mont Blanc fountain pen for years, but have been unwilling to spend the money. The quality on this type of pen is superb, but they're way pricey and frankly I haven't been willing to spend that kind of money. I have looked at them on eBay over the years, but rarely do they go for anything less than a couple hundred bucks. During my lunch break the day before my birthday, my cell phone beeped at at me to let me know an auction I had been following was about to close. To my surprise, with eight minutes left on the auction, a Mont Blanc almost as old as I am had been bid up to $102.50. I figured the bidding war was about to begin. I put in a snipe bid for $115.51 and went to take a leak. I came back 10 minutes later to find I had a bill to pay for $115.51. The pen was mine. It arrived today.
I have since seen the same pen sell at NY's Fountain Pen Hospital for over $300.
I'm doing a big old happy dance today. The pen feels absolutely sweet in the hand and on the page. It's the first piston fill I've acquired, which is the technology used in the converters both Waterman and Cross use today. Nice and reliable. Oh, and it's got and ink window! I can see when the ink is getting low, so I can refill it before I leave my desk, rather than have it run out while filling out something in a patient's room. Yay!
I learned to sew when I was a kid, not a major surprise given that both my grandfathers were tailors. My favorite of the three machines I have is my treadle (circa 1914). For gods sake, the thing will sew through leather, and works whether we have power or not & given where we live, where electricity can be spotty during the rainy season, that's a good thing.
I grew up very close to my grandparents. Now while none of them were Luddites, they did not jump to new technology if the old stuff is still working functionally. I don't think any of them ever replaced the ancient heavy Bakelite wall phones in their apartments. My father joked they constituted a defensive weapon. The image of my 4'10" grandmother, turned Valkyrie, handset swinging by its cord above her head is something I've never ever been able to shake out of my head!
In our family milestones were often marked by a like a fine pen or a gold watch. When my folks got engaged, mom's parents gave my father a gold Longine, which he wore the day they got married (and which I wore when LJ and I exchanged our vows). My uncle gave me a Cross desk set when I finished college and my parents gave me a Mont Blanc rollerball when I graduated from medical school.
I've wanted an antique Mont Blanc fountain pen for years, but have been unwilling to spend the money. The quality on this type of pen is superb, but they're way pricey and frankly I haven't been willing to spend that kind of money. I have looked at them on eBay over the years, but rarely do they go for anything less than a couple hundred bucks. During my lunch break the day before my birthday, my cell phone beeped at at me to let me know an auction I had been following was about to close. To my surprise, with eight minutes left on the auction, a Mont Blanc almost as old as I am had been bid up to $102.50. I figured the bidding war was about to begin. I put in a snipe bid for $115.51 and went to take a leak. I came back 10 minutes later to find I had a bill to pay for $115.51. The pen was mine. It arrived today.
I have since seen the same pen sell at NY's Fountain Pen Hospital for over $300.
I'm doing a big old happy dance today. The pen feels absolutely sweet in the hand and on the page. It's the first piston fill I've acquired, which is the technology used in the converters both Waterman and Cross use today. Nice and reliable. Oh, and it's got and ink window! I can see when the ink is getting low, so I can refill it before I leave my desk, rather than have it run out while filling out something in a patient's room. Yay!
