Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Bullet pencil with a difference


Pens and pencils made in the form of (or incorporating) cartridges usually were intended to celebrate military campaigns. This Mordan extending pencil, however, commemorates a very different sort of event: the 1903 Water Riots in Port of Spain -- a key moment in the history of independence for Trinidad. "Moloney" was Sir Alfred Moloney, Governor of Trinidad and Tobago from 1901 to 1904.  

The construction of this pencil is virtually identical to that of the Omdurman bullet pencils, and when I first acquired it, I assumed that it too was made in the same spirit. So it came as a surprise to discover that in fact, it commemorates colonial resistance to imperial rule.

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