Famous signings, famous pens

Pens are depicted in many more pictures than you would first think. Peace treaties ending wars, major business agreements, the signing of star athletes are only a few events where one or more special pens were most certainly used.

When we think about famous signings, many people probably remember the events ending WWII, the preparations for which were partly steered by a former prime minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill. While he resigned from office on July 27 1945, the peace treaty reached would have been most certainly different and signed at a different time without his contribution.

Also, the relationship with pens of this politician-historian was much more complex, and fortunately, much better documented, than one would first think. Before his prolific literary and political career, Churchill worked as a journalist. He travelled across the world during this time working as a war correspondent in the Second Boer War, for example. He also went to India and Cuba where his admiration for cigars started and lasted until the end of his life.

According to the International Churchill Society, his preferred writing instruments during his earliest years as a professional writer were sourced from the Bachelor’s Club in London. This was, by the way, the first club he joined, at the age of twenty. In 1898 when he was serving in India where he was one of the best polo players in his regiment, he loathed the pens available there and he beseeched his mother in a letter to send him a box from the Bachelor’s Club, ‘of the sort I like. The Hall porter knows.’

Churchill’s first documented pen purchases were the famous Swan fountain pens from Mabie, Todd & Baird, Pen Makers in 1905. During the First World War he used an Onoto pen. He later favoured pens with flexible nibs called Red Dwarf, made by J. Kearney & Co. from Liverpool that produced fine lines ideal for sketching and drawing. As Prime Minister, Churchill’s preference would be for archaic Conway Stewart pens.

A legend is born

On May 2 1988, there was only one man in professional football, coach Alex Ferguson who could know what a great player a boy called David Beckham could become. This was the day, David Beckham’s 13th birthday, when he signed a contract with one of the world’s most famous clubs, Manchester United.

As the docuseries Beckham from Netflix shows, the coach from Scotland with a huge appetite for success had been keeping an eye on the short, skinny boy for some time. The boy looked up on the coach therefore his mother had gift-wrapped a pen for Ferguson which the boy gifted to him. The manager had only one thing to say to this ironically: ‘I’ll sign you for Manchester United using this pen.’

This was a promise Ferguson went on to keep. When the right-winger and the club’s future legend signed his first major contract, wearing a dark jacket and the club’s tie, this was the pen he used. ‘We signed the contract and I could not believe it was actually happening.’

The player later remembered this period this way: ‘Alex Ferguson knew everything about me. He knew everything about each and every boy. He knew their parents, he knew their siblings. This seemed important to me for my future.’

Politicians never steal except if...

And a funny story to finish. Many now probably do not remember the name of former Czech president, Vaclac Klaus but his troubles with signings were often covered in news reports. The bigger problem was his prolonged refusal to ratify the Lisbon Treaty designed to make the functioning of the EU more efficient. He finally agreed to sign when his demands were met.

Meanwhile, the other story made him an internet ‘star’, a real meme. In 2011, the fiery Eurosceptic politician was in South America when at a press conference with the Chilean president, he found himself a pretty item. He carefully examined it, nodded in admiration, smiled slyly then moved his hands under the table to hide the pen in his pocket. There was only one problem with this: it all happened in front of cameras so the whole world could see his master criminal act.

Video source: Channel 4

This scene accompanied by a backing track out of a bank heist film became a real meme while people in the Czech Republic organised a campaign to collect and send pens to the president’s office as he was obviously in need of those.

The pen was not a particularly expensive item, it was allegedly holding the logo of the president’s office. Klaus later said in his defense that just like others, he collects pens and notepads that’s how he got a pen from the NATO summit and a notepad from the Latvian parliament, for example. But, at least with his new pen, he can write down his signature as many times as he wishes.

While we do not know how many important agreements have been signed using Etelburg pens until now, we are certain that each one of our products is the right instrument to conclude major deals or to sign documents of special importance.