Interesting Sheaffer Balance

[david i]

This one just sold on ebay.

Comments?


http://vacumania.com/penteech2/SheafferBalance_Statesman_Deluxe_jewelersA.JPG

regards

david

[Pelikan-Vera]

????

[jar]

What's on the banding?

[ardgedee]

Looks like dates: 1909, 1939.

30 year service award?

[dannzeman]

The milled cap band makes it uncommon, and it looks to be in impeccable shape, but I'd wager there's a lot more to it since this is coming from David. Very intrigued.

[david i]

Hi guys,

Sorry slow on follow up and will do more next couple days. After the 14 hr scenic drives to and from the Raleigh Pen Show with pen bud Paul Erano (who came down from Albany to NYC for the big drive), and with my return to work, I've been a bit swamped. I have to post the car shots in the Lounge (the Jag up on Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains). The pen discussed here is in the category that was featured in an article Paul (the Editor) accepted to PENnant Magazine last summer. A massive thing nearly 5000 words, it covered about 16 pages and had probably 17 photos.

Briefly, regarding the pen photo above.

For those familiar with Balance collecting, the amazing thing in the photo is not the pen (which is quite nice), but instead is the foil tab labeling the set as Statesman Deluxe Lifetime.

The pen is a quite nice late 1930's Sheaffer Balance, obviously. It opens discussion to something I often find far more interesting than the pen itself, that being the context and history of the pen and its company. Balance ran roughly 1929-1941 (one can tweak the end points), and was in competition with-- among others-- Parker's 1920's-1930's Duofold then its 1933-1940s Vacumatic.

Sheaffer was very successful, making many pens for many markets. As with competitor Parker from that period, today we have many company catalogues from the 1930's, which offer us great insight into what is correct (vs mixed/frankenpen-ish things) and into what is expected.

All Sheaffer Balance pens shown in Sheaffer catalogues have a single smooth cap-band. We have probably 9 large catalogues and major pamphlets from Sheaffer describing these pens during the 1930's.

Sheaffer pens are well known with off-company-catalogue findings. Parker pens turn up that way too.

This pen has the most common off-catalogue cap-band, a very wide lined cap-band that collectors call the Jeweler's cap-band. It is factory original. There are more rare styles out there as well..

But, while Parker assigned series and model names to most of its 1930's pens, Sheaffer did not apply model names to its various Balance models until 1938.

A lurking issue for collectors has been what model names, if any, Sheaffer applied to off-catalogue variants. Since the pens are not in Sheaffer catalogues, we don't have easy access to model names.

It is likely that among pen collectors I own the most Sheaffer company info about special names for special variants, info that probably first was generated by Sheaffer in 1938. There are couple fellows out there who are in competition though for having the most info of this sort.

In my summer 2012 PENnant Magazine article, I offered a photo showing several Jeweler's Cap-band Balances with special names or model codes, found on foil set labels, pen price stickers, and such.

What is special to me on this pen set (which I now own), is not that it is a relatively uncommon Jeweler's cap-band variant of the Statesman (Standard size, White Dot/Lifetime pen), but that there is foil tag in the set identifying the model and showing a set price greater than that of typical Statesman. One can parse the word order, but whether one considers this a Statesman Deluxe, instead of conventional Statesman, or considers it a Statesman that is part of the Deluxe Lifetime line (normal Balances lacking "Deluxe") perhaps is a trivial nit to pick. I'm good with Statesman Deluxe or Deluxe Statesman.

This is the first info I've seen pinning a model name to the Jeweler's Band version of the Statesman.

I have information about other Jeweler's Band pens with the oversized called Premier Deluxe instead of just Premier, and with slender (white dot) called Deluxe Sovereign instead of just Sovereign. It is likely the ladies size White Dot pen also is modified by "Deluxe".

Of interest, the non-White Dot pens that have the Jeweler's cap-band now have had couple models identified by name, and those names do not feature the simple addition of "Deluxe". But I'll save that post for another day.

Here is a shot of the most information ever offered to the hobby of named Jeweler's cap-band Balance models, from my PENnant article. I have found more info since then.

http://vacumania.com/paul/small_banditry014_tagsmontageRAW.jpg


For fun, here is a plethora of Balances with the Jeweler's style cap-band, from the PENnant article.


http://vacumania.com/paul/small_banditry006_jewelersbandRAWcrop.jpg

Relevant to this discussion is the benefit of Pen Collectors of America membership even for net-savvy pen collectors. More on that another day.

Upshot, ebay pens can offer collectors more than just pens ;)


regards

david

[Jon Szanto]

Total bonus!

David, thanks, as always, for the information and education. I now have it on pretty good standing that the pen I recently got is a carmine Sovereign Deluxe! (ETA: on further examination, I think NOT - the clip is shorter. I'll get pics up one day on FPB...)

BTW: for all those reading, here is *another* bump for considering joining the Pen Collectors of America. The paltry $40 dues gives you access to 3 issues of The Pennant, where David's article was printed (he's almost always represented) and the aforementioned Paul Erano is the editor. It would be worth it just for that, but you also have access to their archives of past issues plus a big library of scanned/pdf'd catalogs - immensely helpful when trying to ID an odd pen purchase.

As is often the case, this thread is winning.