With the glass paperweights mentioned on Friday 29th December we found some 25 year old genuine onyx and marble pen sets with 14ct gold nibs and they are being offered from 19/11d upward. Do you think they sell at these silly prices? Not on your life! Perhaps we should double the price as we did with the paperweights. I suppose some synthetics could conceivably be worth more than the genuine article but surely not in the case of marble and onyx. I really do have a lot to learn about the retail trade!

John Lentell – Barum & Sarum

January 10th, 1968