Speedball is a
US manufacturing company
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range ...
of
stationery
Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) ...
and
art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
products, based in
Statesville, North Carolina
Statesville is a city in and the county seat of Iredell County, North Carolina, United States, and it is part of the Charlotte metropolitan area. Statesville was established in 1789 by an act of the North Carolina Legislature. The population was r ...
. The company was originally established as the "C. Howard Hunt Pen Company" in 1899, to manufacture
dip pen
A dip pen or nib pen or pen nib usually consists of a metal nib with capillary channels like those of fountain pen nibs, mounted in a handle or holder, often made of wood. Other materials can be used for the holder, including bone, metal and pla ...
s.
Over the years, and throughout the acquisition of other companies, Hunt expanded its range of product to
stationery
Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) ...
,
office supplies
Office supplies are consumables and equipment regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, by individuals engaged in written communications, recordkeeping or bookkeeping, janitorial and cleaning, and for storage of supplies o ...
, and even
furniture
Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...
. After a major restructuring in 1997, Hunt changed its name to ''Speedball'', originally a
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
of pen launched by the company in 1915.
[
Speedball currently produces and markets a wide range of products that include ]printmaking
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...
, writing implement
A writing implement or writing instrument is an object used to produce writing. Writing consists of different figures, lines, and or forms. Most of these items can be also used for other functions such as painting, drawing and technical drawing, ...
s and art materials
Arts media is the material and tools used by an artist, composer or designer to create a work of art, for example, "pen and ink" where the pen is the tool and the ink is the material. Here is a list of types of art and the media used within tho ...
.[
]
History
In 1899, C. Howard Hunt formed his own company and established it in Camden, New Jersey
Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...
. To start his business, Hunt brought several pen makers from Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. George E. Bartol, a Philadelphia grain and commodities exporter, was among its shareholders. In 1903, Bartol became president and director of the company, where he remained until 1917. The company had a production of about 45,000 pens a day from rolled sheets of steel.[Hunt Pens history on DVRBS.com]
/ref> In 1913, the "A"-series, a dip pen
A dip pen or nib pen or pen nib usually consists of a metal nib with capillary channels like those of fountain pen nibs, mounted in a handle or holder, often made of wood. Other materials can be used for the holder, including bone, metal and pla ...
for calligraphy
Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
purposes, is patented by Ross F. George and William H. Gordon. Two years later, the Hunt company partnered with George, releasing the ''Speedball'' A-series dip nib. In 1916, the "B"-series is released, while the "C"-series was launched in 1918.[About us - History]
on Speedball Art, 6 Dec 2019 After Bartol resigned as president of the company, his son George Jr, was appointed for the charge. Bartol Jr. would remain as president for over 50 years, retiring in 1969.[
The original pen's "A-style nib" developed by Ross had a square-tipped head that made broad lines, which worked well for some of Ross' numerous lettering styles. The "B-style Nib" had a round section at the head of the nib that would round off the beginning and the ending of each pen stroke. The "C-style Nib" is the chisel-point nib that creates thick and thin lines depending on the angle the pen is held. The C-style nibs are a favorite of many calligraphers. The "D-style", an oval shaped head nib, created an italic/gothic style to the letters that it produced. All of these nibs had Ross' signature brass reservoir. The E-style was the steel brush. George took the patent to the C. Howard Hunt Pen Company in 1915. They manufactured each of the above nibs in different sizes and published the ''Speedball Text Book'', a periodical manual written by George which contained updated samples of numerous lettering artists' work, including Ross' past instructor William Hugh Gordon.][ The "steel brushes" were made in four sizes, also chisel pointed, but in larger sizes than the C-Style nibs. The steel brushes also fit in the same size nib holders that are used for the smaller nibs.
In 1925 Hunt acquired the "Boston Specialty Company", manufacturer of ''Boston Pencil Pointers'', a line of ]pencil sharpener
A pencil sharpener (also referred to as pencil pointer or in Ireland as a parer or topper) is a tool for sharpening a pencil's writing point by shaving away its worn surface. Pencil sharpeners may be operated manually or by an electric motor. ...
s. Throughout the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, Hunt reduced operations, then recovering with the development of some pens. In 1942, regulations on stainless steel stopped production of pencil sharpeners and specialty metal items. The sale of silver alloy nibs kept the company viable during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.[
George Bartol III, joined the C. Howard Hunt Pen Company in 1946, first as an apprentice in the company's manufacturing department. He would later succeeded father as president in 1956. In 1969, he also became chairman of the board. Bartol's leadership transformed the small, ]family-owned
A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by blood or marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business and the willingn ...
C. Howard Hunt Pen Company into the publicly held
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...
"Hunt Manufacturing Company".[
In 1957, the factory moved from Camden to ]Statesville, North Carolina
Statesville is a city in and the county seat of Iredell County, North Carolina, United States, and it is part of the Charlotte metropolitan area. Statesville was established in 1789 by an act of the North Carolina Legislature. The population was r ...
, while the offices were relocated in Pennsauken, NJ
Pennsauken Township is a township in Camden County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township's population was 37,074, reflecting an increase of 1,189 (+3.3%) from the 35,885 count ...
in 1963 and then to Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
in 1965. Notable events during those years include the company's arranging for the immigration of expert pen makers from England, and its sponsorship of sports teams in Camden's amateur and industrial leagues.[
By the 1990s, Hunt marketed a large range of products that included (apart from its pens) ]paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
s, markers, utility knives
A utility knife is any type of knife used for general manual work purposes.Peterson, Harold L., ''Daggers and Fighting Knives of the Western World'', London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd., , p. 1 Such knives were originally fixed-blade knives with du ...
, drawing board
A drawing board (also drawing table, drafting table or architect's table) is, in its antique form, a kind of multipurpose desk which can be used for any kind of drawing, writing or impromptu sketching on a large sheet of paper or for reading a l ...
s, office furniture
Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...
, office supplies
Office supplies are consumables and equipment regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, by individuals engaged in written communications, recordkeeping or bookkeeping, janitorial and cleaning, and for storage of supplies o ...
, and roller laminators. The company offered them through its own brand as subsidiaries such as X-Acto
X-Acto is a brand name for a variety of cutting tools and office products owned by Elmer's Products, Inc. Cutting tools include hobby and utility knives, saws, carving tools and many small-scale precision knives used for crafts and other applic ...
, Bienfang, Conté
Conté (), also known as Conté sticks or Conté crayons, are a drawing medium composed of compressed powdered graphite or charcoal mixed with a clay base, square in cross-section. They were invented in 1795 by Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who create ...
, Boston, or Stabilo.
On 14 November 1997, the company CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
, Walt Glazer, led a buy-out of the ''Speedball'' division during a major restructuring of the Hunt Corporation.[ As a result, the company was renamed "Speedball", and former Hunt pens started to be commercialized under the Speedball brand.
]
Products
The following is a list of current products manufactured and marketed by Speedball. The company also markets in the US products by other manufacturers, such as the ''ArtGraf'' brand of graphite
Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...
putties and sticks by Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
company Viarco, and drawing charcoal
Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...
sticks by British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
company Coates Charcoal.
Broad edge nibs
Speedball makes nibs for dip pens in a variety of sizes. There are also a series of left handed nibs, designated LC, available in the same sizes as the C-0 through C-4. In the 1940s Speedball introduced the 'Flicker' Series of pens in the B style designated FB, named for the brass reservoir that flicks open for easy cleaning. The sizes for their different series flat-tipped pens (such as for Italic writing) are given below:
Production of the D series pen nibs ended in 2015.
Flexible point nibs
Lines of fine point nibs by Speedball are:
There are numerous other points no longer available including the 98 Stiff Falcon, 513 Globe Fine, and 788 Global Point.
Penholders
Lettering Manuals
Hunt and Speedball Art have published lettering manuals since 1915, when Gordon and George first published ''Presenting The Speedball Pen.'' As new pen types were developed they added fonts and expanded the book. The D-series was introduced in the 1926 9th Edition. The steel brush E series was introduced in 1960. The latest edition is the 26th published in 2021. They include instruction on many font types using their nibs and pens and provide many examples. Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the host and executive producer of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-night talk show that premiered on ABC on January 26, 2003, ...
used his 1960 edition as a ready reference when doing his art work.
Artists
Speedball and Hunt pens have been widely used by a legion of comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
and comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
artists to ink their pages. Hunt pens were the choice of Walt Simonson
Walter Simonson (born September 2, 1946) is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics' ''Thor'' from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill. He is also known for the creator-owned w ...
, Dale Keown
Dale Keown (; born July 23, 1962) is a Canadian comic book artist known for his runs on ''The Incredible Hulk'' and his creator-owned comic book '' Pitt''.
Career
Keown started working in comics in 1986 drawing several series for Aircel Comi ...
, Bob McLeod, Kevin Nowlan
Kevin Nowlan (born 1958) is an American comics artist who works as a penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer. He has been called "one of the few artists who can be called 'artists's artist'", a master of the various disciplines of comic producti ...
, Bill Sienkiewicz
Boleslav William Felix Robert Sienkiewicz ( ; born May 3, 1958) is an American artist known for his work in comic books—particularly for Marvel Comics' ''New Mutants'', '' Moon Knight,'' and '' Elektra: Assassin''. Sienkiewicz's work in the 198 ...
, Joe Sinnott
Joseph Leonard Sinnott (; October 16, 1926 June 25, 2020) was an American comic book artist. Working primarily as an inker, Sinnott is best known for his long stint on Marvel Comics' ''Fantastic Four'', from 1965 to 1981 (and briefly in the la ...
, Mark Morales and Andy Lanning
Andy Lanning is an English comic book writer and inker, known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and for his collaboration with Dan Abnett.
Career
Lanning works primarily at Marvel Comics and DC Comics as an inker. He has also pencill ...
(#102 model), George Pérez
George Pérez (; June 9, 1954 – May 6, 2022) was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling ''Fantastic Four (comic book), Fantastic Four'' and ''The Avengers (co ...
(#100), Mike DeCarlo
Mike DeCarlo (born March 14, 1957) is an Americans, American comics artist. He is best known for his work for DC Comics in the 1980s Inker, inking the artwork of such artists as George Pérez, Greg LaRocque, Keith Giffen, and Jim Aparo.
DeCarlo ...
(#103), Drew Geraci (#22) and Joe Rubinstein
Josef "Joe" Rubinstein (born 4 June 1958) is a comic book artist and inker, most associated with inking Marvel Comics' ''The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe'' and the 1982 four-issue ''Wolverine'' miniseries by Chris Claremont and Frank ...
(#100, 103). Carl Barks
Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck ...
' wife lettered his comics with a Speedball A-5 or B-6, although Barks himself was an Esterbrook
The Esterbrook Pen Company is a former American manufacturing company founded by English immigrant Richard Esterbrook and based in Camden, New Jersey. It was the largest pen manufacturer in the United States, having reached a record of producing 2 ...
enthusiastic. In House Industries
House Industries is a type foundry and design studio based in Yorklyn, Delaware. The company was created in the 1990s in Wilmington, Delaware by co-founders Andy Cruz and Rich Roat. The company is best known for its typeface creations, which have a ...
Lettering Manual, Ken Barber calls out the Speedball pens as personal favorites.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Art materials brands
Companies established in 1997
Companies based in North Carolina
Pen manufacturers