The Pens and The Postcard

Two curious stories appear today in the local Yorkshire press:

1.  The Telegraph & Argus carries the story of the Brontë Sisters Pens:

Richard Cunningham, who runs penmakers York and Beyond, has obtained English Oak from the Haworth Old Schoolroom, where the sisters taught, and Haworth Church, where they worshipped and two are buried, during the buildings’ latest renovations.
He has now used the wood, which dates back to the 1850s, to craft three different styles of fountain pen, each design named after of one of the sisters.
Described as being “expertly crafted by professional wood turners in the sister’s native Yorkshire,” each pen is also gold or silver plated and comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by Reverend of the church Peter Mayo Smith.
Mr Cunningham says it is a great link for any fans of the sisters to have with the surroundings that inspired them.
A proportion of money from their sale goes towards the maintenance of the church and schoolroom. Mr Cunningham set up the company in 2006 with help from the Job Centre’s New Enterprise Allowance Scheme. He crafts the pens using a wood lathe and sells them online. (...)
The Emily and Charlotte Brontë pens are made out of wood from the church where the authors are buried, reclaimed from a pew in the church. The Anne Brontë pen is crafted from wood from the Brontë schoolhouse, removed when the building’s window frame needed replacing.
Rev Mayo Smith said: “They are lovely pens. It is much better that the wood gets recycled into something else. I like the idea of this wood becoming pens. It has that nice connection to the Brontës and their writing.”
The pens each cost £39.99 and come in a gift box.

Source

2. The Yorkshire Evening Post and The Telegraph & Argus also report the discovery of thousand of reproduction prints and postcards by the artist P B  Rennison.One of them is about the Brontë Sisters:

Reproductions of an original portrait of the Brontë family and other scenes of Haworth have been uncovered in a chapel cellar in the Dales and donated to a local children’s charity for sale to the public.
They are part of a collection of ‘Vintage Views of the Yorkshire Dales, Brontë Country and Lake District’ painted by acclaimed artist, the late P B Rennison of York.
Thousands of these rare reproductions, in unopened boxes, were discovered in the cellar of the chapel at Barden Tower and have now been donated to the Bethany Hare Smile Foundation which raises money for sick and terminally ill children.