Hits and misses: calligraphy brush

Calligraphy supplies are not exactly cheap, especially larger brushes and good paper. So I try to source for supplies on auction sites and flea markets. Such purchases are mostly hits and misses. While paper is paper and you can still write on them, brushes can be difficult to judge when deciding if you want to try to buy something or now.

For example, a while ago, I managed to get this brush on Yahoo! Auctions. It didn't look like it was in the best condition, but it still looked usable. Goat hair calligraphy brushes of this size can be really expensive, and this looked like a good offer.

 

But then I washed it, and it looked like this. Basically, a lot of the hair had broken, to the extent that trying to use this brush as a normal one would be impossible. It can now function as a thin brush with extra long hair, though...😅

Compared to how a healthy brush looks, like the one below (which I wrote about here), the difference is quite obvious.

Since then, I have become a bit more picky about what I pick up on auction sites and flea markets. I am just glad that I picked up the "extra long hair calligraphy brush" with a bunch of other, usable brushes so it wasn't actually a loss.