Old Drafting Instruments
The skill of the technical illustrator, the draughtsman, the draughtswoman, the cartographer, the engineer or the architect, or for the drawing up of electronic circuitry diagrams.
From the earliest mental concept of any inventive idea formed for the purpose of building and further developing, for the making of such as an engineered prototype model, or for the industrial factory mass production of a functional product built to fulfil whatever is required.
Taken from the initially pencilled on paper sketches drawn to portray the visualised image of the object to be built, detailed preliminary plan layout drawings have to be formed at an appropriate scale size by the draughtsperson.
During the booming years throughout the revolutionary period of industrial productivity the apprentice trained skilled draughtsman was at the peak of his profession, regarded as being a person of professional status.
The employment opportunities within this field of occupation were then enormous, as also was the stress factor of the job, there was always a 'deadline' for the drawings to be finished, which usually was the day before the draughtsman had been given the job, needed by yesterday.
It appears that today the drawing work that would have taken a draughtsperson a full week to complete, can be done on a computer in a matter of minutes, with multiple copies printed out by a laser printing machine or plotter.
The prime era of that highly skilled field of profession has long ago ceased to be. Only a minority of struggling small size companies may employ a skeletal staff for such drawing work, freehand drawing work, if needed, is generally undertaken by an independent self employed draughtsman.
The once expensive and cared for extensive range of high quality drafting instruments used in the hey-day of the draughtsman's profession have become another of today's collectibles.
Collectible Drafting Instruments:
By far the most sought after pen within the diverse range and scope of the draughtsman's
instruments is a line ruling architectural pen made by Montblanc which dates to the late 1920s or early 1930s. It was the first Montblanc model designed to incorporate a piston ink filling system of much the same type later used in the company's fountain pens, the design was patented by the firms managing director Ernst Rosler in 1923, this pre dates by some years Montblanc's first piston filling model fountain pens launched in 1934. Only a very few of these Montblanc line ruling drawing pens were made, until recent years none had surfaced. The few that were sourced had been bought from a Copenhagen dealer who's interest was broadly within the scope of pens in general, they had been found in Sweden and in Denmark.
This has indicated the likelihood that they were made in Hamburg for exporting to Scandinavian countries.
Sold from the collection of the United Kingdom resident, Duke von Stenheim in 2004 this pen changed ownership for £2000.00.
Old Drafting Instruments page 2
