'They come as a boon and a blessing to men, The Pickwick, the Owl & the Waverley Pen'
I’ve been reading Joanna Carey’s survey of the work of Quentin Blake and when she mentioned that his favourite nib was the Waverley Pen, I remembered that I had a box squirrelled away in the attic.
Sure enough there was the Waverley Pen box, in grandad’s Victorian writing box but there were no nibs in it, just a couple of fossils and a few small spiral shells. We once recreated a Victorian naturalist’s study for a Wakefield Naturalists’ Society display at the Wakefield Flower Show, so I’d used the box as a period detail.
I guess that I removed the Waverley nibs at that time, so the only one that I can lay my hands on now is the one in the quill-like pen holder that we used in the exhibition.
Somewhere in an old film canister or matchbox, I guess that I still have a supply of Waverley’s. As you can see from my sketch, using a Waverley Pen doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to draw like Sir Quentin, but it’s a pleasant pen to use and it produces a varied line.