Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 309

Just some photos of two pen-related items I recently found in a couple of local thrift stores....

(please click on images to enlarge)

The wax seal kit was unused and came with a stick of sealing wax and a wooden-handled stamp with two initials on it. I checked online and found that this kit retails for 30 Euros at the Cartoleria Pantheon in Rome, so the $3.99 CAD I paid for it was a great deal. The little Santa is a novelty ballpoint I got for a dollar at a hospice thrift store.

This particular sealing wax doesn't come with a wick, so it's a bit trickier to use as you need to continually apply heat to melt the wax onto the paper (vs. just lighting a wick and letting the wax melt). I looked and found an excellent guide to making wax seals on JetPens.com here that was very helpful.

Above: This is the bottom of the stamp that came with the wax seal kit. It shows two initials in a rather elaborate cursive font. Of course, the initials are a mirror image of how they'd appear once pressed into the melted wax, so....

...I flipped the image and I think it now shows the initials L and H. I'll try the wax seal kit on the next envelope I use to mail a handwritten letter, and let you know if I'm right about the initials. I'm going to try to write more hand-written letters this year, and I think this might encourage me to do so :)

(photos & review by Maja)