Saturday, March 9, 2013

Dunhill Namiki And Its Legacy

By Andy Rives


The finding of the art of lacquer dates back around 9000 years ago. Japanese craftsmen found that the sap of a Rhus tree formed a hard and durable material. This substance could be used like paint when wet, and becomes very durable when dry. Mixed with pigments, vibrant fade-resistant colors can be made. To be able to carry things, a tiny box, which hung from a cord and worn like a belt was developed by the Japanese. Boxes such as this were possibly the most popular items to be designed with lacquer.

A fountain pen may be decorated with usual lacquer technique. This fine work of art pioneered by Dunhill and Namiki is named a Namiki Pen.

Lacquer work techniques have been used in paintings, prints, and on a wide variety of objects over a long period of time. Dunhill and Namiki pioneered the work and the application of traditional lacquer methods to fountain pens, cigarette cases and lighters along with other gentlemen's and ladies' prerequisites.

In 1918, Ryosuke Namiki revived the decorative art of lacquer techniques and founded the Namiki Manufacturing Company which produces pens with fine lacquer decorations. Soon after Namiki perfected the lacquer methods on pens, he decided to showcase his products across the world. Clement Court, manager of Dunhill's Paris store was amazed by the finely decorated pens and decided to market them under the combined name of Dunhill Namiki.

The cost of pens nowadays ranges from few hundred pounds to a staggering hundred thousand pounds. Pens having simple landscape scenes with lots of undercoated black background are commonly known as "C" grade pens. They can be charming and are by far the most affordable, generally fetching mid-high hundreds of pounds, determined by the success or rarity of the decoration. The more the pen is decorated the greater its worth. If the pen is completely covered with decoration, it becomes an "A" grade pen, which is the most costly today.

The size and artist also counts towards the value of the pen. Larger pens tend to be more precious than its smaller counter part and pens made by famous artists will be more expensive.




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