The Yore Write! Website

... or, why did I go to all the effort of cataloging my rather modest collections by building a website, not just once, but twice?

When it comes to collecting, my belief is that unless one knows what she/he has (& just as importantly, what she/he does not have), the fine line between being a collector, or being a hoarder, risks becoming significantly more blurred. Thankfully, I cannot afford to be a hoarder!

In addition, at least here in Ontario, large collections of anything need to be professionally appraised in order to obtain adequate insurance coverage against loss or theft. And that exercise can only be accomplished by starting with a proper inventory of one's collections.

There are many ways to create that "inventory", of course. One could use a spreadsheet, purchase a specialized tracking app such as "Recollector"*, build a website, or simply keep a hand-written summary of acquisitions and eliminations.

I used Recollector for several years and it suited my initial needs quite well.  Over time, I decided that I wanted to go a step further and create a website which would allow me to share my interests with other like-minded individuals. For some reason, there seems to be very few personal collections of any sort that are viewable via the web. When I first began collecting there was a collector named John Loring, whose website I referenced on an almost daily basis as I found it to be such an invaluable resource. In creating a web version of my collection, my hope was to provide (on a much smaller scale than John's website) a similar resource to fellow collectors and others simply interested in antique writing equipment. Perhaps the effort might even encourage a few other collectors to consider establishing websites of their own.

With that resource concept in mind, I began the search for a website building tool that I could easily use and in 2017 I completed the first version of YoreWrite.Info. While pleased that I was able to build it myself without any expert technological assistance, I quickly discovered that the hosting service provider's "advertised" simplicity and flexibility was not quite reflected in the actual toolset and I found myself spending enormous amounts of time trying to do what should have been simple tasks (new collection additions, deletions, organizing the media data, etc.), or on the helpline trying to sort out why their system was crashing during updates... again and again. In addition, the toolset had no backroom admin. functions, which meant that I needed to continue to use Recollector in parallel for actually tracking values and other details that weren't being shared publicly; in effect, duplicating much of the general maintenance effort.

After months of trying to find a suitable replacement that would avoid my having to start from scratch, earlier this year I connected with a local website developer that proposed to re-build the site using WordPress, and to salvage all existing details from both the current website and Recollector. The "project" strategy was pretty straightforward - I would provide the design and content, and he would build the site using WordPress in such a way that once completed, I could easily manage the entire site without ongoing support from him.

YoreWrite.Info** has now been live for just over a month and from my perspective it has met every objective I had established for it, including :

- Online viewing of the collection in a "museum-like" layout, with simple, intuitive, navigation through the collection and associated information.

- Searches by a number of fields as well as keyword searching.

- Admin. tools that allow me to easily add items, media, update categories and other taxonomies, even modify page structures. As I learn more about WordPress I can choose to do more advanced site development on my own, or utilize the developer, if needed. 

- Ability to flag some fields and items as private and not have them displayed except through the admin tools (this is important as a way to keep acquisition details, sold items, etc. in the same database as the publicly shared info).

Home Page of YoreWrite.Info

I couldn't be happier with the rebuild results. If you're thinking about creating a website for your own collection, go for it! Since creating the YoreWrite.Info website I've connected with many other collectors around the world, and have been contacted by dozens of individuals seeking information on family heirlooms, found "treasures", and other related questions. To date, the website has been visited by collectors and others from over 100 different countries.

* - "Recollector" is an inexpensive, and extremely flexible, application that allows one to build a database for collections. Prior to the creation of the new YoreWrite.Info website, I relied totally on Recollector to track the collection details for inventory/insurance purposes. I highly recommend it for straightforward tracking of most types of collections. https://www.collectingcatalog.com. It has excellent reporting tools as well as amazing flexibility and simplicity in its setup and use.

** - YoreWrite.Info - The new version of YoreWrite was built by Alex Leuschner.

Well, Whaddya Know, Maude!

As kids growing up in the backwoods of Quebec in the mid-20th century, my siblings and I had somewhat limited exposure to our immediate relatives. We'd usually connect with our Ontario Aunts, Uncles, and cousins once every year or two, and with our Grandmother only slightly more often.

Our grandmother (Maude) was our only living grandparent, and lived several hundred miles away in Montreal, with her brother Les. When Grandma Mom decided to visit, it was Les who would do the driving. Maude and Les were born in England at the end of the 19th century and emigrated to Canada with their mother and two other siblings in 1913. In spite of the length of time they had lived here, the two of them retained their English "properness", and occasional "wackiness", throughout their entire lives.

Les was a fascinating character in every sense of the word. He would often go for a morning walk wearing a pair of gray wool dress slacks, held up with a pair of suspenders over a sleeveless undershirt covering his somewhat largish paunch (no shirt), his favourite white fedora, and a pair of nice plaid slippers; it was quite a sight. He was also quite a brilliant man in so many ways. He could often be found in his basement workshop crafting a variety of gadgets and gizmos. For a time as a young man he was a concert violinist, and reportedly once played in Carnegie Hall. He was also ambidextrous and could write with both hands at the same time, with the left hand producing a mirror image of the right. But to us he was just "Uncle Les".

Uncle Les's official retirement photo - fashion was not his forte

So what does ANY of that have to do with my collection of writing equipment? 

Well, as one can guess from the above, Les was a curious man at heart and in his own way he helped to instill that same sense of curiosity in us kids. He happily spent hours chatting with us, and whenever we'd share some nugget of what we believed to be childhood brilliance with him, he'd turn to our grandmother and say "Well waddya know Maude?" (likely with an accompanying quick wink). It was always said with sincerity, and never in a mocking or condescending way. It was his way of encouraging all of us as we discovered our world for ourselves.

My family has now had to live with my own use of that phrase for decades, whenever even the smallest snippet of a new discovery or fun fact passed through our lives. Over the past few weeks I've been revisiting some of my previous blog entries, along with their associated items from the collection, and what follows are a few of the fun facty entries I re-read that evoked a whispered "well, whaddya know, Maude" ... 

There are porcupines out there with quills that are over 30cm long - really! - A Prickly Business 

Mordan Quill Dip Pen - quill is over 18cm - late 19th c

Pencil makers acquired actual battlefield relics (bullets) to factory produce souvenir pencils - War Related Pencils

Bullet Pencil - Battle of Omdurman - 1898

The curious evolution of Lord Stanhope's one piece microscope - Instant Success Takes Time 

"Spotted Egg" Pencil with Stanhope - c1890

From a vine, high in the canopy of an equatorial rainforest, to a pencil factory in New York, to the wall of my office - Bean There, Done That

"Sea Bean" Pencil - c1880

When some pencil case makers helped others weather the storm during a major depression - Hard Times in the U.S.A.

Hard Times Token - John Hague - 1837

No matter one's interests, curiosity is what drives us to find out more, to question, to explore, to enjoy. Uncle Les helped me find countless "Well, whaddya know, Maude?" moments throughout my life and through my various collecting interests, and I'm now looking forward to discovering tomorrow's...

Mordan's 1848 Catalogue "Unplugged"

For many collectors of Victorian pencils & penholders, the 1898 Sampson Mordan Catalogue is a familiar reference resource. Reproduced and published by Jim Marshall (The Vintage Pen & Pencil Gallery), this 28 page booklet provides a fascinating insight into the breadth of Mordan's offerings at the turn of the 20th century.

In addition, there are many single page advertising examples for various Mordan & Co. products that can be found online dating to various decades throughout the 1800's which can also be helpful in identifying and dating various items. 

And more recently, I came across a complete catalogue of S. Mordan and Co's product offerings that dates to 1848... 

Front Cover - 1848 Catalogue*

Inside Front Cover - 1848 Catalogue* 

Since I don't live in the U.K., the majority of my research efforts, as they relate to my collection, are conducted via the internet and existing published resources. In recent years, more and more research libraries and local/regional archives have made their collection catalogues available for online searches, greatly improving the opportunity for discovery of hidden gems. 

Every now and then I get the urge to spend a day, or three, wandering through some of these libraries and archives online, and last year the stars aligned for another round of sleuthing thanks in part to the recurring pandemic lockdowns.

While flailing around in one of many rabbit holes, I stumbled across a reference to an interesting collection of documents in the Cheshire Archives that had been donated by a member of the local Lowe family. Included in the catalogue for these family papers was a reference entry for an 1848 price list of Sampson Mordan & Co’s products. As I had never seen, or heard of, this price list before, the possibility that a complete catalogue existed that pre-dated the 1898 catalogue by 50 years immediately caught my attention! 

Several weeks later, and at a cost approximating that of an actual Mordan pencil of the same year, I received a download of high resolution scans of the complete 1848 catalogue, 72 pages in total, containing illustrations and pricing for the Mordan product line from 174 years ago.

Included in the catalogue are descriptions and pricing for a wide range of their products - pencils (silver, gold, figural, etc.), penholders, quill pens, steel pens, postage scales, copying presses, safes & locks, inkstands, perfume bottles, vinaigrettes, medicine chests, and more. The first, and largest section of the catalogue is focused on the "Patent Ever-pointed Pencil". With almost a third of the catalogue being devoted to their line of pencil cases, it is clear that this was Mordan's "bread & butter" product line at the time.

Silver Pistol Cases - 

3 sizes of Pistols in silver & gilt*

Example of silver pistol from my collection 

The "Victoria Pattern" silver pencil cases had 21 variations available - 

"Victoria Pattern" 21 options*

"Victoria Pattern" combo from my collection

Mordan's "Gothic" gold pencil cases offered the discerning buyer a range of 2 styles in 3 different sizes, and as the catalogue points out, they are "A most elegant Article" - 

Gothic Gold Case*

Gothic Gold Case from my collection

Copying Presses - 

Mordan copying press from my collection

Overview of available copying presses*

Portable leather Travelling Inkstands - 

Portable travelling inkstands*

Mordan travelling inkstand from my collection

There are of course many, many, more pages in the catalogue, covering quite an extensive range of items. The inside back cover page of the catalogue provides a nice overall summary, and the outside of the back cover offers the reader "A Peep Into The Manufactory" (an illustrated look at the 13 steps involved in the production of the Mordan steel pen).

Inside rear cover*

Outside rear cover*

The above images are simply intended to "wet the appetite" by providing a few examples of pages from the catalogue, along with some similar examples from my collection. Other collectors will have even better examples of these and many other items found in the catalogue, I'm sure. The 1848 catalogue is intriguing not just for its age, but it also provides a broader, and more interesting, insight into what writing equipment was most sought after by the "buying public" at the time. While it may help fill in some blanks for some of us collectors, it also raises new questions (at least it did in my case).  

The introduction to the catalogue's pencil section includes the following assurance to prospective buyers - "To avoid all inconvenience, the following caution will insure the purchase of a genuine article :- See that each Pencil has the name, "S. Mordan & Co." stamped, on the body of the case."  I found this interesting as the makers mark commonly associated with the years 1845-1852 is "S. Mordan & Co. Makers" with "S. Mordan & Co." not becoming the mark until 1853.

I was also curious as to who the "Lowe's" were and why they would have had a copy of a Mordan catalogue in their family records. Apparently, the Lowe family has been a well known Chester family of jewellers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, and assayers, for past 250 years or so. Lowe & Sons was established in 1770 by George Lowe, and while the business is no longer owned by the family, the business still carries on under the same name. The Mordan catalogue would have likely been used in the jewellery shop and then kept in their files for some unknown reason, eventually finding its way into the Chester Archives.

The catalogue also included a few oddball items that seemed rather incongruous, until you delve a little further into Sampson Mordan's personal history. 

A variety of cabinet and other locks*

Lathes & self-centering chucks*

At the beginning of his career, Sampson Mordan was an apprentice with Joseph Bramah. Among Bramah's inventions was the famous (at the time) Bramah Lock. Mordan developed his own lock making skills during this period, and Mordan & Co. eventually became well known for their locks. Another of Mordan's accomplishments was the invention (or perhaps the refinement of an existing invention?) of a self-centering lathe chuck specifically designed to address production issues in his pencil factory. In 1828, the Royal Society of the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce awarded Mordan "The Large Silver Medal for his self-centering lathe chuck". More info on Mordan's professional connections and how they helped shape the Mordan product line over time can be found here.

And lastly, included in the catalogue are several versions of a "Styloxynon"... What the heck is a Styloxynon? Hint : The oldest surviving example of this device was patented in the UK in 1833, and any of us that have ever used a wooden pencil have also used a more modern version of it...

* All images from the 1848 Mordan catalogue have been used with permission from the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, Cheshire Record Office, Chester. My thanks to all the staff at Cheshire Archives and Local Studies for their assistance in finding, retrieving, and copying the original document for me, as well as their patience in answering my many questions associated with the process.  

Sources :

Sampson Mordan 1898 Catalogue - The Pen & Pencil Gallery, ISBN 978-0-9562711

S. Mordan & Co's List of Prices - January, 1848 - Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, ZCR 24/23 

Lowe Family History Information - The Monuments at Bunbury Church, Cheshire, Part 2,  pages 103-104, 1918, The Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire