Pen Glossary: C

Glossary: Fountain Pen Bits, Pieces, and Other Stuff

Like any other specialized item, the fountain pen has amassed a lexicon of terms that are unique. And like other jargon languages, fountain pen jargon can be cryptic or confusing. This glossary presents brief definitions for many of the most common pen terms. It is not complete (an impossible goal); but it is a work in progress, and I welcome suggestions for terms to add. (Revised April 4, 2008)

The glossary is organized alphabetically. For numbers, look under the spelled-out form; e.g., for 14K, look under fourteen.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

C
C	See karat.
CA	Eversharp’s name for its first ballpoint pen, introduced in 1945 and produced in versions resembling the Fifth Avenue (shown here) and the Skyline. The name reflected the pen’s capillary-action operating principle. The design was rushed to market without adequate testing and development, and it was disastrously unreliable.

Cable	(also Cable Twist) A distinctive helical (spiral) pattern of chasing or machined grooving on the body of a pen, used principally by Parker and other manufacturers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among modern pens featuring this design, one of the best known is the Bexley Cable Twist (illustrated below).

cabochon	A jewel cut and polished to a convex shape without facets, occasionally set into the clip or other decoration on a pen. Shown below is a red cabochon on the cap crown of a no-name German Snake pen. See also jewel.

calligraphy	(Greek for beautiful writing) A term encompassing many different styles of decorative writing, including Spencerian and copperplate scripts, italic and other chancery hands, Oriental pictographic writing, and so forth. See also chirography, copperplate, Spencerian.
Camel	A pen company founded in 1935 to produce pens that made their own ink when you filled them with water. At the back end of the barrel, built into the button filling mechanism, was a replaceable cartridge that contained an ink pellet. Unlike the ink pellets for trench pens of World War I, the Camel’s pellet was intended to be good for many fillings, up to a year’s worth. The concept was good, but the execution was unsatisfactory, and Camel was out of business by the end of 1938. Shown here is a “junior” sized Camel. See also Instant Ink, trench pen.

cap	A detachable cover that snaps, slides, or screws onto the barrel to protect the nib and prevent evaporation of the ink supply.
cap band	(also band) A ring of metal placed around a cap near its open end for decoration or to reduce the tendency of the cap lip to split when the cap is posted too firmly onto a tapered barrel. Caps without bands are usually referred to as bandless. Illustrated here are a band at the cap lip (Pelikan M200), a band near the cap lip (Esterbrook J), a broad Autograph-style band (Sheaffer’s Snorkel Valiant), and a bandless cap (Eversharp Skyline).
capillary	A type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here.
capillary action	The drawing of a liquid into a narrow space; occurs when the adhesive force between the liquid and the surface of the solid forming the space exceeds the cohesive force between the molecules of the liquid itself. Capillary action draws ink from a pen’s reservoir into and through the feed, and thence along the nib’s slit to the tip of the nib, from which it can draw the ink onto the surface of the paper when the pen is used to write. A fountain pen that is adjusted for a light-to-average flow can usually write upside down (with the nib pointing upward to contact paper on a wall or ceiling. (A pen set for very wet flow will often have its slit adjusted too widely open for capillary action to overcome gravity.) See also channel.
capillary cell	The perforated and rolled plastic film, enclosed in a metal tube, that forms the reservoir in the Parker 61’s capillary filling system. View a description and filling instructions here.
cap lip	The edge of the cap at its open end. Of interest primarily because posting a cap too firmly, especially on a tapered barrel, can lead to cracks of the cap lip. The illustration here, of a Sheaffer’s Balance, shows two cracks that extend up to the cap band, and have actually chipped, and a third shorter crack between the chipped spots.
captive converter	A filling system using a standard piston-type converter that is secured within the pen, with an external knob fitted to the back end of the barrel (with or without a covering blind cap) to engage the converter’s actuating knob. Some manufacturers of captive-converter pens refer to their pens as piston or twist fillers. See also cartridge, converter.
carat	See karat.
Cardinal	The name applied by L. E. Waterman to the red-orange color of “red” hard rubber. See also Chinese Red, hard rubber.
Carter	An ink (and pen) manufacturing company located in Boston (later Cambridge), Massachusetts; founded in 1858 by John W. Carter. The Carter’s Ink Company was at one time the largest ink manufacturer in the world. Beginning in 1926 under then-president Richard B. Carter, the company produced fountain pens until about 1932, when it abandoned pen production in favor of ink, which had built the company and was still Carter’s essential product. Carter’s pens, known commonly as INX pens and produced in several models at varying price points, were all of very high quality. Carter also developed an innovative lever filler, based on a concept by David J. LaFrance (U.S. Patent Nº 1,669,714), that included a secondary spring to assist in returning the lever to its closed position and keeping it there. Shown here is a Carter’s ringtop from about 1931.

cartouche	See indicia.
cartridge	A disposable single-use ink reservoir, generally made of polyethylene or other soft plastic. In use, the cartridge is pierced by a sharp “nipple” in the pen. Shown here is a Waterman C/F (economy model), the first widely successful cartridge pen, with a cartridge of blue ink. See also another illustration at converter, International. [*Historical note*] The earliest successful cartridge pens were produced by Eagle in the 19th century, and L. E. Waterman made a short-lived cartridge pen beginning in about 1938 (an effort terminated by the advent of World War II). Both of these companies’ pens used cartridges made of glass.

cartridge/converter	(abbreviated C/C) A type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here. See also cartridge, converter, self filler.
casein	(also galalith) A material of which pens are made, a durable plasticlike substance made from a protein (also called casein) that is contained in milk, hardened with formaldehyde. Casein was used in the early 1920s in an attempt to escape from the fragility and limited color choices of hard rubber. Although casein is durable and can be made in very exciting colors and patterns that are difficult to achieve in other materials, its tendency to expand and contract under varying conditions of humidity and the ease with which it discolors on exposure to ink soon saw it supplanted by celluloid. Casein does not respond to the solvents commonly used to fuse celluloid or acrylic, and it is therefore difficult to repair. The modern Conway Stewart 58 shown below, in the Venetian pattern, illustrates the brilliant color effects possible with casein.

C/C	See cartridge/converter.
celluloid	(sometimes incorrectly referred to as pyroxylin) A material of which pens are made, produced by plasticizing cellulose nitrate (guncotton) with camphor. Beginning in 1924, celluloid became the primary material for caps and barrels, under names such as Sheaffer’s “Radite” and Parker’s “Permanite.” More durable than hard rubber but less durable than many modern plastics, celluloid was supplanted in the 1940s by acrylics and polystyrenes, but some modern manufacturers still produce pen models of celluloid. ¶ Celluloid has a charming warm feel in the hand and can be manufactured in many exciting solid and mixed colors, but it is relatively unstable and has a tendency to discolor over time. It is also extremely flammable. The manufacturing process for celluloid involves an extended curing period, and celluloid that is improperly cured is prone to crystallize, especially in thicker areas, and eventually crumble. See also ambering, cellulose acetate, crystallization, discoloration. pyroxylin.
cellulose acetate	(also acetate, sometimes erroneously called celluloid) A material of which pens are made, produced by plasticizing cellulose through a reaction with acetic acid and acetic anhydride. Cellulose acetate was developed in the 1930s as a safer (more stable) replacement for celluloid. See also celluloid.
Century of Progress	(also COP) A World’s Fair-style exhibition held in Chicago during 1933 and 1934. Some Wahl-Eversharp Bantam pens bear cap-band imprints for the exhibition (shown below). See also Bantam.

CF	(also C/F) 1 Cartridge filler; a type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here. 2 The Waterman C/F (introduced in 1953), the first widely successful cartridge-filling fountain pen. Shown below is a C/F in the Barleycorn pattern. Higher-priced models of the C/F are notorious for corrosion of the plated trim apron that is inlaid into the section surrounding the nib. Low-priced C/F pens (see illustration at cartridge) lacked this apron. Read a profile of the C/F here.

chalk mark	(also chalkmark) Identification marking printed on a pen or pencil by the manufacturer, using a wax-based ink (not actual chalk). Chalk marks indicate nib sizes, model names or numbers, prices, and so on, and can be rubbed away easily with the fingers. Shown below is the mark on the barrel of a Waterman pencil of the 1950s. See also sticker.

Challenger	A series of three button-filling pen models produced by Parker during the latter half of the 1930s. The Challenger (illustrated below, upper) had a single plain cap band and a plain blind cap; the Deluxe Challenger (below, middle, the Slender size) had three narrow cap bands; and the Royal Challenger had a jeweled blind cap (with a tassie) and more attractive celluloid patterns. The Royal Challenger appeared in two versions, at first with a “Sword“ clip (below, lower) and later with a plainer design known as a “step” clip. Sword-clip Royal Challengers are uncommon; they are highly sought after and bring premium prices. See also Sword clip.

channel	A groove cut into a feed to allow the passage of air or ink. Illustrated here is a Waterman feed; the channels run the length of the top surface. There is a broad channel, into the floor of which are cut three narrower channels (properly called fissures); these latter hold ink by capillary action to prevent the interruption of flow when an air bubble passes through the broad channel into the reservoir to replace used ink. See also capillary action.
chased	Engraved with shallow grooves (“chasing”) in a checkerboard, herringbone, or other decorative pattern. In reference to pens, usually applied to hard rubber. See also engraved, guilloché, and hard rubber. Before the advent of plastics, most pens were made of Black Chased Hard Rubber (BCHR); much less common is Red Chased Hard Rubber (RCHR). See a reference page on chasing patterns here.
chatelaine	A chain formerly worn at the waist by women to carry necessities such as a purse, a bunch of keys, or a ringtop pen. See also ringtop.
Chatelaine Tip	Conklin’s name for a ringtop pen. See ringtop.
check protector	See Security.
chevron	A repeated V shape used as a chasing pattern on early hard rubber pens and, more commonly, on Wahl metal pens. Also, a single V-shaped gold stripe on the palladium-plated nibs of some Parker striped Duofolds (1940s), whence the names “Victory nib” and “Chevron nib.”
chew marks	(also teeth marks, tooth marks) Dents in the surface of a pen, usually at the ends, made by a person with the habit of chewing on pens. Tooth marks seriously devalue a pen and are usually irreversible.
Chicago Conklin	Phrase used (often dismissively) to identify a Conklin pen made after the company’s 1938 sale to a Chicago syndicate whose principal interest was to maximize profit at the expense of product quality. The move to Chicago marked the practical end of high-quality Conklin pens. The company managed to stay alive through World War II, producing pens of third-tier quality such as the Glider and the Minuteman; it finally ceased operation in 1948. See also Conklin, Glider.
Chinese Lacquer	See urushi.
Chinese Red	(also Lacquer Red) Parker’s name for the bright red color of the hard rubber used for the original Duofold beginning in 1921 (near right). Collectors sometimes call this color “Tanager” from Parker’s comparison of its beauty with that of a scarlet tanager. In 1926, when Parker phased out hard rubber in favor of celluloid, the color became a little less bright (far right). See also Big Red, Cardinal, hard rubber.
Chilton	A pen manufacturing company located in Boston, Massachusetts, and (later) Long Island City, New York. Founded in 1923 by Seth Chilton Crocker (son of Seth Sears Crocker), the Chilton company was noted for its high quality and innovative designs. Chilton’s primary design feature, introduced in 1924, was a clever and effective pneumatic filling system that Sheaffer adapted in the late 1940s as the latter company’s Touchdown model. Chilton also developed a successful nib design, called the Wing-Flow, with “ears” that wrap around the feed to lock the two parts in alignment. There was some amount of overlap and collaboration between the Chilton and Crocker companies. Shown below is an example of Chilton’s first-model pen. See also Crocker, Touchdown, Wing-flow. Read a description of Chilton’s filling system here.

chirography	Formerly, and in general usage, the art of handwriting; calligraphy; penmanship. In current usage among calligraphers, the term refers to ordinary handwriting as distinct from calligraphy. See also calligraphy.
Christmas tree	An early feed design used by Parker, so named because it has barb-shaped notches to provide increased capillary surface for better flow buffering. As shown here, the notches give it a shape reminiscent of a Christmas tree. See also feed.
ciselé	A French word (pronounced SEE-zuh-lay) meaning engraved, commonly used to denote the engraved crosshatched design of the original Parker 75 (see photo at crosshatched) and, by extension, any similar pattern whether engraved or not.
clasp	Term for an abbreviated clip such as the very short one used on the Sheaffer Tuckaway (illustrated at Tuckaway) or the somewhat longer one used on several Wahl-Eversharp pens (shown below, on a Doric). See also clip.

clip	A finger- or prong-shaped metal or plastic piece attached by one end to the cap, formed so that the other end presses against the cap as a clamp for securing the pen into a pocket or other similar location. Illustrated here is a Parker “51” “Split Arrow” clip bearing Parker’s Blue Diamond trademark. See also clasp.
CLIP-CAP	L. E. Waterman’s name for caps with its patented riveted clip, introduced in 1905. The company included the name as part of the clip’s imprint. In 1927, Waterman replaced the CLIP-CAP imprint with WATERMAN’S.

clipless	A pen with no clip on its cap. Clipless pens were made primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries. During the latter part of this period, some companies offered the same pen models with or without clips. See also ringtop, accommodation clip.
cloisonné	(French word meaning partitioned or walled off, pronounced KLOY-zuh-nay in English) Enamelware in which colored areas are separated by thin metal strips that are formed and laid in place to create the design. See also enamel, intarsia.
clutch cap	A slip cap fitted with a set of spring fingers (the clutch) inside the open end to hold the cap on the pen body by friction against a clutch ring mounted on the body. The first successful clutch cap (illustrated here in cross-section) was used on the Parker “51”. See also clutch ring.

clutch ring	A decorative metal ring or band between the section and barrel of a pen with a slip-fitting cap. The clutch ring of a Parker “51”, illustrated here, engages a set of metal spring fingers inside the cap (the clutch) to hold the cap in place. See also clutch.
coarse	A broad nib whose tip is shaped to counteract the tendency of broad nibs to produce a slightly narrower line in the lateral direction than when moving vertically (line variation). A coarse nib produces essentially the same stroke width in all directions. See also nib.
coin	A type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here.
coin silver	A designation indicating an alloy in which 90.0% (U.S.A.) or 91.7% (U.K.) of the total metal content, by weight, is silver; the other fraction is usually copper or zinc. The same as 900 (U.S.A.) or 917 (U.K.). On pens, generally used for caps. Pieces made of coin silver are sometimes not marked to indicate the silver content even if they do bear hallmarks. See also silver, sterling.
collector	The hugely enlarged comb feed of the Parker “51” and its descendants, made to surround the nib rather than lie within it, and concealed within the shell. A very small hard rubber “feed” is placed within the nib to support the breather tube and provide a capillary surface to deliver ink to the nib’s tip. The collector, feed, and nib of a “51” are illustrated here. See also feed.

Colonnade	Wahl-Eversharp’s name for a 1930s metal pen similar in appearance to Waterman’s Moderne, which had lengthwise slots cut in an overlay to reveal the black hard rubber beneath. The Colonnade’s design was actually not pierced through an overlay but rather machined into the metal surface with the faux slots painted black. See also Moderne (definition 2).
comb feed	A feed with slots cut into it, as shown here by an early version and a modern commercial feed, to provide the maximum possible capillary surface for flow buffering; patented in 1904, widely deployed in the 1920s and ’30s and used, with enhancements, by most modern manufacturers. See also feed.
combo	Colloquial shortening of combination; a term for a writing instrument that combines a pen and a pencil; these instruments were produced primarily during the 1930s. The combo illustrated here is a no-name solid sterling silver specimen. See also Penselpen.

cone cap	A slip cap that mates with a tapered area on the pen body, as shown on the Beaumel below. Many early hard rubber pens were made with cone caps. Capping or posting a pen with a cone cap too firmly can exert enough stress on the cap to split it. See also slip cap, straight cap, taper cap.

conical nib	See Triumph nib.
Conklin	A pen manufacturing company located in Toledo, Ohio. Founded in 1898 by Roy Conklin, an inventor, to produce pens using his revolutionary Crescent-Filler system, invented in 1897 and patented in 1901 (U.S. Patent Nº 685,258, shown below on a Nº C34 pen). Until the mid-1920s, the Conklin company resisted a change away from the Crescent-Filler because of the design’s remarkable success, and this unwillingness to advance was a contributing factor in the company’s slow decline and in its replacement as a member of the “Big Four” by Wahl-Eversharp (in about 1927). In 1931 Conklin introduced the Nozac, the only successful twist-knob piston filler produced by a U.S. manufacturer. In 1938, the company’s declining fortunes led to its sale to a Chicago syndicate. See also Chicago Conklin, first tier, Nozac.

Connaisseur	A series of cartridge/converter pens introduced in 1985 by Sheaffer, produced in several versions including opaque solid colors, chased black, and metal. Shown below is the chased model, in blue. Discontinued in 1995, the Connaisseur reappeared three years later as the Levenger Seas. See also Seas.

Continental	A safety pen with a (usually) gold-filled overlay, produced primarily in Italy and France. At first these pens were made by Waterman; later, the producers used European “knock-off” pens. Shown here is a Continental made by Fendograf, a Milanese firm specializing in highly decorative overlays. See also Ideal (definition 2), overlay, safety.

converter	(also convertor) A replaceable ink reservoir that can be refilled, designed for use in pens that accept cartridges. Converters exist in squeeze, piston, Touchdown, syringe, and button types, mimicking the respective filling systems but providing the convenience of cartridge use if desired. A Parker 45 is shown here with a cartridge (upper) and a piston-type converter (lower). See also captive converter, cartridge, International.

convertible	1 A fountain pen whose barrel is fitted with a blind cap that can be removed and replaced with a taper to convert the pen into a desk pen. Sheaffer and Wahl-Eversharp made lever-filling convertible pens in the 1930s; any pen whose filling system makes use of a blind cap can be fitted with a taper in this manner as illustrated below by two 1920s Parker Duofolds. 2 A pen that can be converted to use more than one filling system; in this sense, the term is generally applied to pens such as Parker’s 1970s Big Red, which accepted either a soft-tip refill or, with a pair of adapters, a standard Parker ballpoint refill.

Conway Stewart	(also CS or C/S or C-S) A pen manufacturing company located in London, England, founded in 1905 by Frank Jarvis and Thomas Garner. The name “Conway Stewart” is believed to derive from the names of the comedians in a duo act that supposedly played at the Collins Music Hall in Islington. Conway Stewart produced a broad variety of pens, including both ordinary fountain pens and a stylographic pen known as the “Ink Pencil.” The company is perhaps best known for its classic 58 model, considered by many to be a nearly perfect pen in terms of size and handling. Shown below is a 58 in the color now commonly referred to as Cracked ice, although Conway Stewart did not so designate it. The company ceased operation in 1975; rights to the name were purchased by a new venture, and the Conway Stewart name returned to the pen world in the late 1990s. Today’s Conway Stewart pens are luxury-oriented writing instruments of excellent quality.

COP	See Century of Progress.
copperplate	A formally round script style (English Round Hand) favored by 18th-century writing masters, from whose exemplaria it was engraved with a burin into copper plates to print the masters’ copybooks; latterly named for the engraved copper plates themselves. A copperplate alphabet is relatively simple in style, but artistic flourishes sometimes overwhelm the basic simplicity. The copper plates were engraved slowly and laboriously (drawn, not written). Modern practitioners of the art create the style with a pen, as the early writing masters intended that their students should learn to do, and in this case the product is truly written. Shown here is a short exemplar typeset in a copperplate font called Edwardian Script. See also calligraphy, Spencerian.

cork	The outer bark of the cork oak tree, used as a piston seal in piston fillers and as shaft packing in safety pens and plunger fillers. See also packing.
Coronet	Eversharp’s name for a gold-filled metal pen it introduced in 1936. The Coronet, a lever filler, featured a strikingly attractive Art Deco design that included “bands” of triangular cutouts revealing insets of celluloid in either black or a marbled burgundy. Illustrated here is a Coronet with burgundy insets.

corrosion	The destruction of metal by an oxidation reaction. On copper-based alloys such as brass, corrosion usually shows as verdigris, and it can result from contact with moist air laden with sulfur compounds that can combine with the moisture to form sulfuric acid. On stainless steel, corrosion is caused by sustained contact with an acidic ink and appears as a pitted area. (See photograph at pitting.) On ordinary steel parts (e.g., pressure bars), corrosion appears as rust. Corrosion should not be confused with brassing, which is caused by abrasion. See also brassing, pitting, stainless steel.
CPT	Chrome Plated Trim. See also plated.
crack	Damage caused by excessive stress. Cracks usually appear in barrels where a friction-fit section is inserted, in cap lips of pens that have been posted too forcibly, or in nibs. Cracks in some materials can be repaired or even restored to invisibility, but such repairs are usually weaker than the native material. There is no known way to repair cracked hard rubber such that the repaired part will have meaningful mechanical strength.
Cracked Ice	A pattern of irregular areas separated by a network of lines of a contrasting color, used for pen barrels and caps. Cracked Ice was originally identified with (but not named by) Conway Stewart, which used black areas and white or silver lines, as shown here. More recently, several makers have used patterns of white or near-white chips with dark-colored lines that may bleed somewhat into the chips, discoloring their edges attractively. In some cases, these patterns include chips of varying colors, as shown in the rightmost image here.
Craftsman	A model name that Sheaffer assigned in the latter half of the 1930s to a full-length standard-girth Balance priced at $3.50 (illustrated below, upper). Distinguished through most of its product life by a Nº 33 nib, the Craftsman remained in production through several styling changes until the mid-1950s, at which point it had become a $5.00 TIPdip model that no longer bore a Nº 33 nib (below, lower). Caution: Do not be misled by the common but erroneous 1:1 association of the Craftsman name with the wire-band pens that Sheaffer introduced at the end of World War II; there was a wire-band Craftsman, but there were other wire-band models as well. Read a profile of the Craftsman here. See also TIPdip, wire band.

cranked	Literally, “twisted.” Describes a nib (usually an italic) that has been made with its tines bent sharply to one side to accommodate a very steep tip obliquity, as shown to the right with a neutral italic for comparison. Cranked nibs are rare; the best known examples are untipped steel calligraphy nibs produced “for left-handers” by Osmiroid, a defunct British company. See also nib, untipped.
crazing	A network of cracks or fissures, sometimes so small as to be invisible to the naked eye, running over the surface of, or through, hard rubber or plastic. Crazing is caused by chemical activity; in rubber it results from oxidation and drying out, while in plastics such as celluloid it results from the gradual decomposition of the material due to the outgassing of plasticizers. See also crystallization.
crescent	A type of filling system. View a description and filling instructions here.
Crest	A metal-capped pen with the cap threads at the proximal end of the section to allow for a more streamlined profile, introduced in 1937 by Sheaffer. Initially identified only as the Model 47, later named Crest. From its introduction until 1942, the Crest had an open nib (illustrated below, upper, lever filler); in that year, along with Sheaffer’s other Lifetime models, it received the new Triumph nib (below, lower, Vacuum-Fil). See also Imperial (definition 2); Triumph nib.

C-ring	See snap ring.
crisp	(also formal) A variation of italic or oblique italic nibs, illustrated to the right, in which edges are sharply defined; a calligrapher’s nib. A crisp italic nib is relatively lacking in smoothness but produces greater line variation and more precise corners than a cursive italic, which is ground to be relatively smooth in use. See also cursive (definition 2), italic, oblique.
Crocker	A pen manufacturing company located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1902 by Seth Sears Crocker (father of Seth Chilton Crocker), the Crocker company produced generally ordinary pens of high quality; its most unique pen was a blow filler called the Ink-Tite (illustrated below, a ladies’ model). There was some amount of overlap and collaboration between the Crocker and Chilton companies. See also Chilton.

crosshatched	(also cross-hatched, “Lattice”) Shaded or decorated with lines (usually engraved and often filled with paint or chemically treated to be a contrasting color) that cross one another at an angle. Crosshatching can be done at any angle; two common versions, both executed in sterling silver and illustrated below, are the rectilinear design on the original Parker 75 and the diagonal (“Lattice”) design on one of the Sheaffer Imperial models. See also ciselé, engraved.

crown	The end of a pen’s cap or barrel. On an overlay pen, sometimes covered with a domed metal end cap that may be formed over the edge to meet the overlay, as on the cap of a Waterman’s 412 (near right), or crimped in by a bead at the edge of the overlay, as on the barrel of a Waterman’s 0552½V (far right). See also overlay.
crystallization	In pens, gradual decomposition of plastics due to the outgassing of plasticizers. The material becomes progressively more friable and may eventually crumble of its own accord. See also crazing.
CS	See Conway Stewart.
CT	An obsolescent abbreviation for carat, seen most commonly on vintage British nibs.
cursive	1 A style of handwriting in which letters are connected together by strokes from one to the next; more rapidly written than styles that require the conscious lifting of the pen from the paper after each letterform is completed; the style taught to school children after they have learned to print block letters. 2 A variation of italic or oblique italic nibs, illustrated to the right, in which edges are reshaped more smoothly than normal to enable more rapid writing. See also See also crisp, italic, oblique.
cutwork	See filigree (definition 2).