david i
November 26th, 2014, 03:55 PM
This might be a bit of an advanced-topic pen, but that's ok. It's still a nice one.
The arena of re-badged fountain pens is popular with serious collectors of old pens and indeed still offers room for research, as many of the details have not yet been well explored.
Re-badged pens are pens that carry brand markings for a label owned by the seller, who had the pens manufactured by a different company, usually a major pen manufacturer, while the seller himself did not make pens. This is akin to modern Sears Kenmore washing machines. There is no Kenmore manufacturing plant. The label is owned by Sears, the machines over the years made for it by actual manufacturers such as Whirlpool.
Among old pen brands, Diamond Medal was a Sears brand, the pens made at times by Barrett-National and by Parker. Gold Bond was a Montgomery Ward brand, pens made for it at times by Barrett-National, Wahl, and Waterman. Most of these date 1920s-1930s
The Rexall drugstore chain was a bit of a strange critter. It was a meta-name, originally created by a large group of independent pharmacies who wanted to pool resources, the name eventually being leased to other pharmacies. Its origin was not quite typical ground-up growth followed by franchising.
Rexall had pens made for it to sell under store labels at least including Monogram and Belmont. Signet too? The pens were manufactured at least by Moore and by Kraker.
The following is a rather hefty Monogram set, the imprint ("Monogram... sold only by Rexall, etc") well preserved on the barrel. This one shows obvious Moore cues. This is the only one of its type I've noticed. So, I bought it at the Boston Pen Show in September (2014).
http://vacumania.com/penteech2/monogram_candystripeset_moore950a.jpg
regards
-d
The arena of re-badged fountain pens is popular with serious collectors of old pens and indeed still offers room for research, as many of the details have not yet been well explored.
Re-badged pens are pens that carry brand markings for a label owned by the seller, who had the pens manufactured by a different company, usually a major pen manufacturer, while the seller himself did not make pens. This is akin to modern Sears Kenmore washing machines. There is no Kenmore manufacturing plant. The label is owned by Sears, the machines over the years made for it by actual manufacturers such as Whirlpool.
Among old pen brands, Diamond Medal was a Sears brand, the pens made at times by Barrett-National and by Parker. Gold Bond was a Montgomery Ward brand, pens made for it at times by Barrett-National, Wahl, and Waterman. Most of these date 1920s-1930s
The Rexall drugstore chain was a bit of a strange critter. It was a meta-name, originally created by a large group of independent pharmacies who wanted to pool resources, the name eventually being leased to other pharmacies. Its origin was not quite typical ground-up growth followed by franchising.
Rexall had pens made for it to sell under store labels at least including Monogram and Belmont. Signet too? The pens were manufactured at least by Moore and by Kraker.
The following is a rather hefty Monogram set, the imprint ("Monogram... sold only by Rexall, etc") well preserved on the barrel. This one shows obvious Moore cues. This is the only one of its type I've noticed. So, I bought it at the Boston Pen Show in September (2014).
http://vacumania.com/penteech2/monogram_candystripeset_moore950a.jpg
regards
-d