Pen World v32.6

Far left—Milles fountain pens in dark and light
blue enamel with gold vermeil accents and in
azure blue and white enamel with sterling
silver accents.
Left—the barrel end features engraving
representing the city flag of Stockholm.
Above—the cap doubles as its own standing
sculpture, with a cap crown depicting the St.
Louis city flag in white enamel.
Not unlike Oscarson, Milles’s fate was riddled with themes of coalescence and connection.
Among Sweden’s most famed and distinguished sculptors, his work nevertheless dots
the American landscape as well—a transcendence of place and yet an embrace of it. For
example, Milles’s the Hand of God was initially a tribute to Swedish innovator C.E.
Johansson, who engineered precise measurements for tools that made viable the assembly
line. While this initial sculpture resides in Eskilstuna, Sweden, Johansson’s original home,
funding from the United Auto Workers allowed for the work to be recast and given to
the city of Detroit, Michigan, where it is displayed outside the Frank Murphy Hall of
Justice. The Hand of God is equally meaningful in both cities; it is local and universal.
Another type of incorporation is, of course, marriage, and, as Oscarson’s first wedding
anniversary with Veronica approached, he wanted to commemorate the union, the
beauty of synthesis between the two family branches. Just as the Missouri and Mississippi
Rivers are joined where they intersect and their many tributaries become the product of
both, Oscarson’s children (and grandchild!) merge to become one, an exquisite unit.
Veronica, in fact, plays a part in the design, as it is her line art on the body of the pen.
Even in its creation, the fountain pen was collaborative, a comingling, a coming together.
Indeed, as the 20th anniversary of Oscarson’s presence in the industry arrives, the distinction
of length seems both an arrival and a departure—an accomplishment, but not an end. It
is, in fact, a new beginning with the groundbreaking David Oscarson Carl Milles Marriage of
the Waters collection.
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