The Evolution of Broad Edge Nibs and Rundschrift

Traditional arts are always dying. You could go back a few thousand years and will likely find Babylonian scribes decrying the death of good old, cultured, clay tablet writing in favor of all this fancy pen, ink and papyrus nonsense the kids were then using. “It will never last!”, they would have warned, and they were right.

The ‘kids’ with their gritty iron gall ink and reed pens didn’t last. The goose feather would be the death of them, or their writing habits anyway. Quills took over and ever thinner, more richly-coloured synthetic inks were soon in vogue. The flexible (read unreliable) tip of the quill, and the unyielding chisel edge of the reed pen, resulted in a variety of scripts and lettering styles. Whether you liked it or not, line variation was unavoidable, so you had to make the best of it. A flurry of calligraphic pen flourishes were born and writing would never be boring again. But a new nemesis was lurking.

Metal nibs made of copper alloy have been discovered dating back as early as the 1st century AD, but back then it would have been a very niche item, both difficult and expensive to make. It was the industrial revolution and the mass production of steel would make the metal nib a viable option. Not just viable but a roaring success. In the 1820’s, starting from Birmingham in England, dozens of factories around Europe started manufacturing steel dip-pen nibs.

By the 1850s, Birmingham had over a 100 steel nib manufacturers, producing half the world’s nibs. The largest factory employed 2000 people. It was a steel rush! With every revolution, however, comes an unnoticed loss. So long and so hard had civilization craved a strong, durable and dependable fine writing nib, that all the new nibs were fine pointed. It was now finally possible to make a precision pointed writing instrument and so they all became fine pointed. It led to an explosion of writing and literacy across Europe and the World, second only to the invention of the printing press, but broad edged calligraphy took a back seat.

And that’s where our German comes in. Friedrich Soennecken was born the son of a blacksmith in 1848. In his late teens he was apprenticing with a manufacturing company as was the norm. During that stint he developed a non-spilling inkwell with a stable stand, in keeping with his interest in lettering. His drawing teacher in school had taught him calligraphy. He took that even further when he invented Rundschrift, a form of lettering using a broad nib which was easy to learn. He wrote a book and guide to it which would help popularize it more than he had likely anticipated.

In the 1870’s he set up the Soennecken manufacturing company which went on to develop the first folders, the hole punch and the ring binder to use them with. These are all inventions he is famous for and things that changed the world of office supplies as we know it. But it was also his company and its resources which spread his book of Rundschrift lessons around the globe, translated into several languages. When Soennecken manufactured a custom broad edged steel nib for his Rundschrift lettering, the perfect storm was complete and broad nib calligraphy grew popular again. Rundschrift, based on the French Rounde style from a century earlier, remained the standard writing style of the French Ministry of Finance until World War II.

If you like hole punches and folders, and punching random holes into paper for entertainment, you have this German gentleman to thank for your hobby. But if you’re into lettering or calligraphy, you owe Soennecken a round of applause. His efforts kept broad nib calligraphy alive into the era of the metal nib, and he wrote one of the first mass produced calligraphy instruction books with detailed diagrams. You owe him the applause for those contributions and for just being a well-rounded stationery addict.

1. Here’s a fascinating story about Calligraphy Ink Brushes from China and Four Treasures of The Study – https://inkymemo.com/calligraphy-ink-brushes-from-china/
2. The Journey from Reed Pens to Fountain Pens – https://inkymemo.com/from-reed-pens-to-fountain-pens/