Serial Number: FP0249
Status: Display
Description:
Gillotty Vintage Dip Pen Black barrel with Gillot’s logo
Joseph Gillott s is a company based in Birmingham, England, which has been manufacturing high-quality dip pens since 1827. The company is currently part of William Mitchell Ltd.
Joseph Gillott was a working cutler in his home town Sheffield, but in 1821 he moved to Birmingham, where he found employment in the steel toy trade, the technical name for the manufacture of steel buckles, chains and light ornamental steel-work generally.
About 1830 he turned his attention to the manufacture of steel pens by machinery, and in 1831 patented a process for placing elongated points on the nibs of pens. Subsequently Gillott adapted the stamping press to the requirements of the manufacture, as cutting out the blanks, forming the slits, bending the metal, and impressing the maker s name on the pens. He also devised improved modes of preparing the metal for the action of the press, tempering, cleansing, and polishing, and, in short, many little details of manufacture necessary to give them the required flexibility to enable them to compete with the quill pen.
