Escher’s pencil
I recently took some time out to see the M.C. Escher exhibition at Somerset House in London. Coincidentally, the day of my visit also happened to be Escher's birthday, which…
Mira, Mira
It is a rare treat to find a drawing tool conceived, designed and manufactured entirely in Canada, especially one as off-the-wall as the Mira. Packed four to a box, which…
Superbow Sunday 2026
As Superbow Sunday rolls around once more (or should that be "bounces erratically"?) this year's edition is well deserving of the name Superbow XL - yes, you heard that right,…
Thornton 1962 catalogue
For all the Thorntonites out there, I have uploaded my recently acquired 1962 AG Thornton Ltd catalogue (9.6 MB PDF) and price list (1.7 MB PDF) to the Internet Archive.…
Stanley catalogue sizes
In my earlier post on Stanley's 1966 catalogue, I noticed an oversight that deserved clarification. Having described the two formats of catalogue that Stanley relied on from the early years of the…
Ruling pen multipacks
A recent discussion about Stanley's 20th-century "Perma" cases and their ruling pens reminded me of an uncommon four-pen set that I acquired as part of a lot of modern drawing instruments. At…
Superbow Sunday 2025
Superbow Sunday is here again, and if there is one thing people like more than the event itself, it's the commercials. So what better way to celebrate the day than…
1966 and All That – Stanley’s last catalogue
1966 may have been a memorable year for England's football team, but what about for the venerable English instrument maker WF Stanley? Having finally managed to track down a copy…
Höhnig’s square triangle
Interesting European drawing instruments have been a bit thin on the ground here in the UK over the last couple of years, but occasionally something unexpected still turns up. In…
Snappy Canada Day!
As it is once again Canada Day, I dug around in my collection for something suitably Canadian to mark the occasion. As mentioned previously, Canada was not especially known for…
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