Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Duke Ellington and a Blackwing

[Photograph by Valerie Wilmer, 1965.]

Duke Ellington in a BBC studio, at work with a Blackwing pencil. Yes, it’s a Blackwing: the ferrule is the give-away. That’s most likely a Pall Mall in Ellington’s other hand. This photograph appears in Derek Jewell’s Duke: A Portrait of Duke Ellington (New York: W.W. Norton, 1977). There appears to be no evidence that Ellington had any particular attachment to the Blackwing pencil, or to any writing instrument.

Related reading, via Pinboard
All Blackwing posts
All Ellington posts

[Note to a certain pencil company: Orange Crate Art is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 License. No commercial use allowed. Thanks for your cooperation.]

comments: 2

MILLICENT said...

Love it! 1965 was a pretty good year for a few reasons (yeah, I'm biased because it's my birth year).

Anway, thanks for sharing :)

Michael Leddy said...

A good year for Ellington too — his first Sacred Concert. And The Far East Suite was in the works.