Pelikan, the brand

The PELIKAN brand tells an entire story, compressed into a single sign. It is the story of the mother pelican’s love and affection for her chick, which, as we know, will one day open its wings and fly. Famous artists such as Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitzky, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, O. H. W. Hadank and many more were deeply involved with the PELIKAN trademark and brand, and helped to shape them. The oldest representations of the PELIKAN pictorial logo from the time before 1878, previously unknown, are published in this book for the first time. These earliest depictions show three baby birds in the nest. Why did this become four, then two, and latterly only one?