Anyone Help????

[Max]

Having probs with the pic.
If this goes though, Ill come back with........the rest of the story.
Max

 

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[Max]

Phew!!!!! I have spent hours figuring this out. Lucky I'm at work BSEG.
O.K. This item is not a FIND, but my father brought back from Syria in WW2. (to England). We moved to the US when I was a kid, and I brought it along. The story goes: My father was stationed in Palestine, took a trip to Syria and stayed with a local family for a few days. Seems he admired this item that was in their home. They did not want to part with it, but told him that it had been in their family for generations. They said it was a Syrian Scribes writing set. The quills were stored in the long part and dry ink in the container.(just add water when needed). It was worn in their sash, like a dagger when travelling. When he was leaving, they offered to trade it for his army boots. Dad accepted, knowing that the queen would buy him another pair.
I remember playing with it as a small child, and dad never treated it like it was of any great value. He has since passed away, and now it graces my mantle, however I'm not sure I want my grandkids playing w/ it.
It is made of brass and engraved by hand, and still has ink residue in the container. I have alot more pics that I need to shrink.
Last year I went on line to look for help with no success.
What I am hoping for is to authenticate it, and perhaps get a ball park value. It may be a tourist knock off, but finding it in the middle of WW2 in someones home, it seems doubtfull to me.
If anyone has any ideas or direction I would greatly appreciate it.
Max.

Wish I had found it under my Explorer coil.

 

[Max]

A closer view.

 

[gldhntr]

have sold several old fountain pens for hundreds of dollars after listing them for a buck....seen several priced in the thousands, but never anything like what you have max.,,,,there is a website called oldpens.com {i think} that is quite helpful......i will go through my papers to see if this is the right web name as it is something like this.....i think i found the site by googling '' fountain pen, or fountain pen collector, possibly something else close.....the site has an appraisal link for these type finds............gldhntr

 

[jeff of pa]

I don't Know much about them, But It Looks like It should be worth a nice amount.

 

[PBK]

I'd say this one's a pretty close match:

http://www.ojm.org/collection/bergergifs/imagepages/scribecase.html

It's in the Berger Collection of the Oregon Jewish Museum. Here's their contact info link:

http://www.ojm.org/location/location.html

 

[Gypsy Heart]

http://www.christies.com/home_page/home_page.asp

Check out Christies Auction House...Yhey have dealt with several Syrian finds in the past and you can send them a picture ,where they will help you out.

Great Treasure !

 

[Kentucky Kache]

Nice.

 

[omnicognic]

It is called a Qalamdan, or travelers quill set. It was indeed carried on the belt and yours looks alot like this one from the 19th century:

 

[Narked1]

Will echo Omnicognic's identification of this as a Qalamdan (although by now it's now necessary I know). I'm an American living in Egypt and as I was viewing this chain my maid just happened to walk into the room and asked in Arabic why I was looking at a Qalamdan (although the pronounciation was a bit different). I explained about the website and then she told me that she remembers the Sheikh (the village religious elder) in her home village of Damanhurr used to have one his desk when she was a child in the late 50's. She told me the Sheikh (also known as "Hagg", or Hajj in proper Arabic) was a man in his 70's or 80's and still used it to write formal letters or to write settlements of disputes between the village folk. She also is going to look around here locally and see if she can find me one or two old ones since I appeared to be interested in them. Here in Egypt, the ability to write Arabic calligraphy is a respected art form, and should only be properly done with a quill.

Thought this was interesting enough to share. Oh, Max, going prices for really old ones run the gamut from a couple of hundred dollars into the thousands (depending on authentication of age of course!)

 

[omnicognic]

Thanks Narked1! While I was able to ID this item, I wasn't able to elaborate much more about it. You filled in the blanks! Thanks for following up on this! --omnicognic 8)

 

[Southcacalaky]

Very Nice item, HH Art...

 

[Max]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I have learned alot in a short time, and I will certainly follow through on some of your suggestions.
The folks on this site have a wealth of knowledge, and I thank them for sharing.
Max