Hey Jude...
I'll give it a try but remember I really have a very limited accumulation compared to many.
Some background. When I was just a kid sometimes Dad would take me with him to work. In his case work was the family's insurance agency meaning a day with GPop, GMom and my Great Aunt doing really exciting stuff like changing out desk blotters and replacing the pads on rocker blotters and filling dip pen inkwells and ...
Yeah, for a ten year old that really was not exactly "EXCITING".
But this was in downtown Baltimore in the early 1950s and right outside was Mount Vernon Place, statues and fountains and the first monument built to honor George Washington in the US and the Peabody Conservatory and the Maryland Historical Society and hotels with barbershops and flower shops and the Enoch Pratt Free Library and my very favorite haunt (well maybe McCormick & Sons was my favorite too since the let me see how tea was tasted and graded and even taught me how to Taste Tea but that I couldn't slurp my tea at dinner) the Walter's Art Gallery.
The Walter's had one of the finest collections of stuff from Egypt and Syria but also lots of stuff from the ORIENT, armor from Japan and swords and scabbards and paintings and masks and dragons and devils and ... yeah, for a ten year old that really was "EXCITING".
There were also grownups there who took the time to explain things to me; who taught me the folktales and stories and traditions that the stuff represented.
So let's start there.
One of the tales I learned was about Momotaro.
There was an old couple that were childless. Once when the old lady was at the stream washing her clothes a big ripe peach came floating by. She caught it and since they were very poor took it home as a treat for dinner. When her husband cut it open they found a baby inside and they raised the baby as their son. They named him "
Momotaro" from Momo (Peach) Taro (Eldest son) or Peach Boy.
This fountain pen is based on the story of Momotaro and was created by the Dento Kogei-shi Kosetsu (real name Tatsuya Todo) for the Danitrio Fountain Pen Company.
The pen itself begins as hand turned ebonite with is first covered in urushi then layers of thin sheets of hammered gold, then more urushi and the final Maki-e artwork. You can see an example of fine line work in the texture of the red strings that tie up his topknot.
Urushi is a common coating that originated in China and was used in China, Korea, Japan and other Asian countries for many centuries. and this next example is based not on a legend but rather a Buddhist, Taoist and Shinto symbol I image many of you are familiar with from the common Yin-Yang symbol.
The Yin-Yang symbol is made from two "comma" shapes (each called a Megatame) and is the simplest of the Tomoe (multiple Megatame arranged in a circle). On this pen the three Megatame Tomoe called Mitsudomoe.
This is another Danitrio pen but this time the artist is from Formosa and named "Zhi-Hao". This pen illustrates yet another type of Urushi work, a process called Rorio-shiage in KuroTame (Black) that then is decorated with Maki-e painting, raden and silver leaf.
Rorio-shiage begins with base coatings of oil urushi that naturally shines when it cures. After each layer cures it is sanded and the next layers added. It generally takes a full day for each layer to cure.
Then the middle layers are added.
The final layer is an oil free urushi that cures to a matte finish and is then burnished with several grades of charcoal to bring out the luster. The final process can take several days and yet the work is still not done.
The final steps are adding a clear urushi layer and while still tacky placing the raden (natural objects like egg shell, abalone shell slivers) and silver leaf made by repeatedly hammering pure silver until it is unbelievably thin and finally the maki-e painting.
If you good folk aren't bored to death yet I'll continue.