Golden Guinea 21/-

[Massaya]

There seems to be a great deal of mystery about the Golden Guinea Pens. The originator of these pens seemed untraceable.
I have recently been cataloguing my pens, and amongst these I have a National Security set. The pen on this set has it's original nib. Known as a Warrant,
On cataloguing my Golden Guinea pen I discovered that it too has a Warrant Nib.
The company no longer exists, and the nibs are unique to that company, equally the Golden Guinea and the National Security pens were produced at the same time in the 1930's.
I venture to suggest that all Golden Guinea pen originated with the National Security Company.
Has anyone anything to add or dispute my findings?1020210203

[Deb]

I venture to differ, in that National Security didn't produce their own pens, but had them made for them by Henry Stark, Son and Hamilton and later by Valentine. National Security and Rosemary were owned by British Carbon Papers of whom not a great deal is known. Golden Guinea remains a mystery. The early ones are very like the cheap no-name hard rubber pens that appear in profusion, often with a threaded end to the barrel, frequently used for advertising. Later ones bear a strong resemblance to Platignum pens, but that's neither here nor there. Resemblance to another pen hardly ever means it was made by them.

You'll find a couple of examples of Golden Guinea pens in my blog, but I'm afraid I come to no conclusions about their origin. They're often attractive and would make a good subject for collection.

Warranted nibs are nibs produced for sale to those companies that do not have nib-making facilities of their own. A great many pen manufacturers used warranted nibs. They don't imply any relationship between the companies that use them.

[Massaya]

Thanks for that Deb.
I enjoy speculating, and hearing everyone's input. You are obviously well informed. I do recall the mention of Henry Stark with regard to National Security, and British Carbon Papers, so I bow to your better knowledge. I would still like to think there was a connection at least to Henry Stark,. There was a suggestion that the Golden Guinea pens were made for the British Colonial market. I discovered the Golden Guinea when I stupidly damaged one in my early collecting days. I will always owe that debt and save as many as I can. I hope you liked seeing my National Security Set, as well, as I think it's great and working too.
I stupidly thought the warrant nib was a reflection of the name National Security, but there you are, you live and learn. Thanks again for your input.
Regards
Massaya

PS Looked at your blog and love your collection companion, this is mine10205

[Deb]

Hi Massaya,
Speculation is good! I've done a lot of it in my blog over the years. Hard evidence gradually comes in to confirm or refute my ideas and in that way we move forward. Your National Security set is a real beauty and it's nice to see it all together after - at a guess - about eighty-some years. I can't really see a link between Nat. Sec. and Golden Guinea but they're both interesting lines. There's a huge profusion of different models issued under the Nat. Sec. name, and just as no-one knows the history of Golden Guinea, no-one can say how many different models they produced. There's much to be discovered about both companies.

[Jerome Tarshis]

Hello from California. Golden Guinea pens appear to be insufficiently documented right now, although we may live in hope that someone will turn up a treasure trove of business records somewhere, at which point All Will Become Clear.

On the subject of nibs that say "warranted," let me add an American or colonial or global perspective. "Warranted" wasn't the name of an English company, or an American company, that manufactured fountain-pen nibs to be used in a variety of branded pens, as Bock or JoWo nibs are used today. It was part of a form of words used in business during the first half of the twentieth century, the rest of the phrase being important. Might be, in all, "warranted 14K," but might be, less happily, "warranted 14K gold plate," with the last couple of words actually on the nib though concealed from the purchaser's view by being inside the section. Might also warrant that the nib was iridium-tipped, whatever metal it was made of.

In principle warranting was much like guaranteeing, so that if you took the pen home and it turned out not to be 14K gold you had a right of legal redress. How often this really happened I have no idea, but I suspect that we are dealing here with advertising copy rather than with hard consumer protections.

Many American pens of yesteryear came with nibs that said "warranted 14K" and I'm not astonished to learn that the same was true in Great Britain.

Here is a thread that addresses the question, and it can't be the only such thread:

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/86763-what-does-the-word-warranted-mean/

I should think that on the whole a nib that said "warranted 14K" without the concealed qualification "gold plate" was in fact a 14K gold nib. Those weren't so rare and precious as they seem to have become in recent years. Quite ordinary fountain pens, including some describable as student pens, had them. My Lamy 81, one age-group above the Safari though nowhere near a top of the line pen, has a platinum-plated 14K nib, which sounds grander today than it did in the 1970s, when the pen was introduced.

Golden Guinea sounds very grand indeed, and may have been, for all I know. We can but hope for information to come to light.

[Deb]

My goodness, Massaya, your companion bears a strong resemblance to my assistant! I'm sure yours is just as helpful as mine.

[Deb]

Double post, sorry