[3 Piet Zwart artworks for a Bruynzeel Fineerfabriek blotter] bigkenji (Elizabeth Wyatt)

(Elizabeth Wyatt)

We just figured we’d never get one

but this is truly a magnificent collection

direct style that anyone—regardless of their education and nationality—was able to understand his images

21 × 30 mm

[3 Piet Zwart artworks for a Bruynzeel Fineerfabriek blotter] bigkenji (Elizabeth Wyatt)Before the ballpoint pen was popularized in the 1950s, people wrote with fountain pens or dip pens. Because fountain pen ink of that era could be slow to dry and highly prone to smudging, people who wrote things often kept small, loose sheets of highly absorbent, unsized paper close at hand. Whenever one finished writing a letter, filling out an invoice, or signing a check, one would gently press this small card over the wet ink to soak up the excess