A David Oscarson pen is designed to be read as well as written with. Each collection takes a person, place or idea and distributes its symbols across the pen: crown, cap, clip, barrel and gripping section each carry part of the story. Knowing where to look turns a beautiful object into a story you can follow.
The crown and cap
The top of the cap is often where the central emblem sits. On Edwin Hubble it is planet Earth in hot enamel. On the Carl Milles collection it is the symbol of the St. Louis city flag in translucent white enamel, while the bottom of the barrel carries the symbol of Stockholm's flag, connecting the two cities as Milles himself did. On America the Beautiful, the cap carries the bald eagle in high and low relief over the Star-Spangled Banner.
The clip
Clips frequently become an object in their own right. On Hubble the clip is a telescope, with a cabochon moonstone set at its top to stand for the Moon. On the Russian Imperial it is ornamented with three pairs of floral rosettes, a jeweller's detail in the spirit of Fabergé.
The barrel and base
The barrel carries the main scene. On Alfred Bernhard Nobel, it shows an exploding stick of dynamite with a burning fuse, while the years 1833 and 1896, the years of Nobel's birth and death, rest at its base. The bottom of the barrel emulates a blasting cap, another of Nobel's inventions, engraved in Swedish with the words Varning (Warning), Tändhattar (Blasting Caps) and Fara (Danger). Four levels of guilloché depict the blast, and four colours of enamel merge outward from white to yellow to orange to red.
Destruction and peace, the two elements of Nobel's life, on one pen.
On America the Beautiful the barrel is an elongated scroll of the Constitution opening with "We the People", with the Liberty Bell beside it. On Hubble it is the Milky Way, with the Hubble tuning fork of galaxy types engraved in low relief around it.
The gripping section
Even the part under your fingers is used: two double-headed eagles on the Russian Imperial, the Mayan 365¼-day year repeated four times on 2012 End of Days.
The engraving and the number
Two further elements carry meaning. The guilloché pattern itself often belongs to the story: a meandering current for the rivers of St. Louis on Carl Milles, sunbursts for Fabergé's Coronation Egg on the Russian Imperial. And the edition size is chosen to fit the subject: 63 for the years of Hubble's and Nobel's lives, 76 for 1776, 304 for the years of Romanov rule.
How to read a pen
- Start at the crown and identify the central emblem.
- Look at the clip and ask what object it has become.
- Turn the barrel slowly and follow the main scene all the way round.
- Check the base and the gripping section for dates, words and smaller symbols.
- Finally, look at the pattern under the enamel, and at the edition number.
Turn the pen slowly, end to end, and the whole narrative appears. If you would like help reading a particular collection before you choose, El Laguito Cigars is an authorized David Oscarson retailer in Canada, and we are happy to talk you through any design.