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Lot 1133
DUNHILL-NAMIKI: Black Lacquer Flat-Top Fountain Pen with Maki-e Cap Band, c.1930s
16 June 2015, 10:00 PDT
San FranciscoUS$4,000 - US$6,000
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DUNHILL-NAMIKI: Black Lacquer Flat-Top Fountain Pen with Maki-e Cap Band, c.1930s
A charming pen, elegant in its austerity, with a red enamel band ornamented with two crabs, spirals and color dots in gold dust maki-e and various pigments. Flat endpiece and captop, gold-plated clip, barrel brind-engraved "DUNHILL / London / Made in Japan." Lever-filler. 125mm. Broad #3 heart-vent Dunhill-Namiki nib. No signature. Excellent condition, glossy and bright.
Plain black urushi Namikis with ornamented cap bands are surprisingly uncommon, and despite their simplicity of design, they carry a strong aesthetic impact. In his classic book Dunhill-Namiki and Lacquer Pens, Tomihiro Murakami declares that of the dozens of fine vintage Namikis in his collection, his very favorite is a plain black lacquer example with ornamented cap band. He describes the pen's attractions at some length, concluding in his warmly idiosyncratic prose: "This kind of Dunhill-Namiki seemed to be thrown away after it was used too much and was damaged as a pen. Due to this, it seems that the existing quantity is much less than that of other lacquer pens. I received a phone call at 19:00 saying that such a pen with a lacquered band was available. I immediately went out, spent two hours on the trains and decided to buy it at a glance."
-Murakami, Tomihiro. Dunhill-Namiki and Lacquer Pens. [Sakura City: 2002], p.18.
-Hutt, Julia & Stephen Overbury. Namiki: The Art of Japanese Lacquer Pens. [Toronto: 2000], pp. 118-119.
Plain black urushi Namikis with ornamented cap bands are surprisingly uncommon, and despite their simplicity of design, they carry a strong aesthetic impact. In his classic book Dunhill-Namiki and Lacquer Pens, Tomihiro Murakami declares that of the dozens of fine vintage Namikis in his collection, his very favorite is a plain black lacquer example with ornamented cap band. He describes the pen's attractions at some length, concluding in his warmly idiosyncratic prose: "This kind of Dunhill-Namiki seemed to be thrown away after it was used too much and was damaged as a pen. Due to this, it seems that the existing quantity is much less than that of other lacquer pens. I received a phone call at 19:00 saying that such a pen with a lacquered band was available. I immediately went out, spent two hours on the trains and decided to buy it at a glance."
-Murakami, Tomihiro. Dunhill-Namiki and Lacquer Pens. [Sakura City: 2002], p.18.
-Hutt, Julia & Stephen Overbury. Namiki: The Art of Japanese Lacquer Pens. [Toronto: 2000], pp. 118-119.