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tannie
August 13th, 2013, 03:25 PM
I recently won an auction on ebay for a Sheaffer's balance fountain pen which I only wanted to buy for the story (such a sucker for a story, me...).

FYI, the description/story:


Vintage Sheaffer fountain pen with Sheaffer Lifetime nib.
It might be interesting for legal experts and historians to know this pen came from the estate of the French-Dutch aristocratic family of the Dutch Vicepresident of the Court of Appeal, Amsterdam: Petrus Simeon Noyon (1761-1848), Deputy Public Prosecutor: Petrus Simeon Noyon (1817-1892), and Attorney-General of The Supreme Court: Tarquinius Johannes Noyon (1848-1929).
The personal inscription on the pen says: "S.Noyon - TDK .1.11.31". The - short round ball humped - clip is engraved "Sheaffer's". The barrel says: "W.A. Scheaffer Pen Co.Fort Madison, Iowa. USA - Pat. D-78,795". The Nib is engraved: "Scheaffers - Lifetime - Reg.U.S.Pat.Off. - made in U.S.A - 4512634".
The pen is marine green mottled. The barrel still has luminous spots,the cap though became a bit dull due to age. The ball of the clip shows a bit of wear to the gold.
I was able to wright with the pen after using some blotting paper to help the ink start flowing. I assume cleaning the pen will make the ink flow by itself again.

Late at night I thought 'why not, I don't have a Sheaffer yet.' so I bid the minimum. No-one else bid, I won and I received it in the mail today. As expected the sac had turned to bits. Whenever listings don't mention the sac, I assume it has disintegrated. I have replaced sacs in the past, so this doesn't worry me. The levers worry me. The lever works fine however and the only sac I have left fits tightly, I will attach that tonight. I spent some time taking it apart and cleaning it, though I could not remove the feed from the section but I think I can clean it without removing the feed. It had ink-crud in the section which flushed out easily so I don't feel too worried about not having full access to the feed.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3671/9505662198_9a8073e0da.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tannie/9505662198/)

Night here, so I don't have many fancy shiny photos of the barrel yet. It does sparkle a bit.

All in all, I think I'll like using this pen, very lightweight and the lever moves easily. I did *not* expect that flex-nib though...

P.S. I have decided 'TDK' stands for 'The Dark Knight' so from now on, I shall name this pen 'Batman' ;)

Jon Szanto
August 13th, 2013, 03:28 PM
Indeed, the flex nib is very much a bonus, as it was not common for Sheaffers. Congrats on a pen with a lot of history!

jar
August 13th, 2013, 03:31 PM
Neat, I hope you can track down who S. Noyon was.

Jeph
August 13th, 2013, 03:33 PM
A super nice pen with a great history to go with it. These are the types of things that make this hobby great.

KrazyIvan
August 13th, 2013, 03:36 PM
Maybe "Petrus Simeon NOYON" ?

http://www.noyon.org/the-ninth-generation/

jar
August 13th, 2013, 04:29 PM
Maybe "Petrus Simeon NOYON" ?

http://www.noyon.org/the-ninth-generation/

Linky not working but would someone who died almost 100 years before the date on the pen be the person?

cwent2
August 13th, 2013, 04:29 PM
Nice win! Thanks for sharing

tannie
August 14th, 2013, 02:04 AM
Small update. I put it back together and inked it up with Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrün (it fits the barrel ;) )

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5448/9505915699_6106d772eb.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tannie/9505915699/)http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7450/9508709224_398b9322cf.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tannie/9508709224/)

It writes fairly wet and I would call it a fine (though with drier ink it'll look more extra fine, I believe). I love how saturated the ink looks and how it shades. I had it in my TWSBi 580 F before and it looked a bit flat (virtually no shading). Much better in this pen!

tannie
August 14th, 2013, 02:06 AM
Oh, the cap looks a bit duller than the barrel. I haven't tried polishing it, not sure if I can bring back some of that sparkle. The pen looks used but otherwise in pretty good condition. It writes well :D

KrazyIvan
August 14th, 2013, 09:51 AM
Maybe "Petrus Simeon NOYON" ?

http://www.noyon.org/the-ninth-generation/

Linky not working but would someone who died almost 100 years before the date on the pen be the person?

Are we looking at the same person? It says he died in 1967.

jar
August 14th, 2013, 10:05 AM
Maybe "Petrus Simeon NOYON" ?

http://www.noyon.org/the-ninth-generation/

Linky not working but would someone who died almost 100 years before the date on the pen be the person?



Are we looking at the same person? It says he died in 1967.

Like I said, the link didn't work, but someone that died in 1967 might be the one.

cwent2
August 14th, 2013, 11:31 AM
Oh, the cap looks a bit duller than the barrel. I haven't tried polishing it, not sure if I can bring back some of that sparkle. The pen looks used but otherwise in pretty good condition. It writes well :D

Looks good and writes great!

Nice win.

firstpancake
August 16th, 2013, 12:49 PM
What a great find. Congratulations!

tannie
August 19th, 2013, 04:05 PM
The nib looks huge compared to my other pens. I took a photo to compare:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7358/9550006868_5c8539c648.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tannie/9550006868/)

Lamy Al-star on the left, Sheaffer in the middle, Vac700 on the right.

Quite the monster...

Jon Szanto
August 19th, 2013, 04:14 PM
And that isn't, by far, the largest of the Sheaffer nibs!

jacksterp
August 19th, 2013, 11:38 PM
You're braver than I taking a chance on that pen - but what a gem.

Good job returning it to service!