While less relevant in today’s world of online retail and home delivery, department stores were once the predominant hub of consumerism. We’ve all done a little window shopping at some point in our lives. Shop keepers have used window displays as a form of marketing to draw in customers and boost sales for as long as most of us can remember. It was Harry Gordon Selfridge (1/11/1858 – 5/8/1947) of the UK who has been credited with bringing inspiration to the window display. His combination of salesmanship and artistic sensibilities fortuitously collided with improvements in the plate glass manufacturing process which allowed for ever grander window displays though simplicity still ruled the day back in the early part of the last century. Fountain pens, once the primary writing implement for most people, were much more ubiquitous than they are today. They could be found at just about any five and dime, general store, and apothecary to name but a few places. Of course, there were dedicated specialty shops as well. Later, the big-box stores would come into existence selling general merchandise and specialty items. Pen manufacturers certainly had an interest in empowering their retail partners in an effort to boost sales and one of the ways they did so was via advertising. Elaborate displays were created to highlight their products, some of which competed for prominent space in shop windows and glass counters. Rather than place a perfectly good fountain pen on display where it might be damaged, non-functioning display pieces were made, models that closely approximated the real McCoy but were merely shadows of the genuine thing. Pelikan had many names for these dummy models. In their native tongue, the two most commonly used terms were ‘Schau-Muster’ [ʃau-mʊstɐ] and ‘Attrappe’ [aˈtrapə] which roughly translates to ‘display model’ and ‘dummy’ respectively. Read on to learn all about these dummies and their unique place in Pelikan’s advertising history.