Early Sheaffer Crest 1937-1950 (Lever/Vac)

[stub]

So I am trying to get my head around the early iterations of the Sheaffer Crest. I have long been a fan of various Sheaffers and vintage Sheaffers are by far my favorite pens. For some reason I have never had an old Crest (though I have a Crest Snorkel for many years) and have become enamored with the early open nib versions and the slightly later Triumph nib ones as well. Lever, Vac, Brown, Black, Open, conical, I really dig them but I find it an incredibly frustrating line to grok and there is a surprisingly small amount of info out there.

I have a 1938 Catalog that someone scanned in and there is the Pen hero page but I still remain confused about some points. Dots come and go and move around. No dots, dots on the barrel, dots on the end, dots on the cap. thin, fat, price code, no price code and goodness knows how many off catalog variations.



It seems the original open nib job was a lever filler and came in 2 sizes.

Full size (sometimes sporting a price code of 1350) and the “Lady” (sometimes sporting a 1250 price code)… Then it got crazy as the Triumph pens came out and there were 1500 and 1750 price codes and now a third size <possibly_wrong> an oversize and while you could possibly get the Crest in Lever or Vac-fil, the oversize was only available in Black and only Lever fill. </possibly_wrong>

& now I am told by someone who knows and sells a lot of Sheaffers that the oversize is not really oversized at all but nearly the same size as the full size pen. He thinks I am chasing a ghost. He says his 1750 "oversize" is nearly the same size as the snorkel Crest. I find that hard to believe.

Does anyone have an variety of Crests, from early open, to vac/triumph, fat, thin, lady and oversize that they can show, caps off so as to get a sense of the size differences?

[jar]

I'm not sure I can help very much. I do have an early Crest But as is so often the case when researching Sheaffer pens it does not quite match up to any of the descriptions I've ever found. It is lever filled, has a very pointed cap much like some later ones, the plain flat end clip, the white dot on the bottom of the barrel, open masked nib with threads at the nib end of the visulated section but no price code stamping and the imprint just says Made in USA without the patent information. The diameter is similar to the full size Sheaffers and the later TM/Snorkels and length similar to full size Sheaffer Balance pens.

So close but not exactly like any descriptions I've found. It's in the middle in this picture.

[stub]

Such a handsome pen. Thanks for that. The Crest is madness. Even amongst the same size & finish pen, same nib, variations are plenty. I saw on here a picture with a bunch of open nib full size crest. There were tiny differences in each one. Number of threads on the section. Small deviations in size. Crest is a mystery to me.

It looks a lot like the Crest, even in the largest size, is pretty much the same size as the first year TDs? It doesn't even look as big as the "oversized" (not really) Valiant Vac-fil.

#4 is oversized Balance?

[jar]

Such a handsome pen. Thanks for that. The Crest is madness. Even amongst the same size & finish pen, same nib, variations are plenty. I saw on here a picture with a bunch of open nib full size crest. There were tiny differences in each one. Number of threads on the section. Small deviations in size. Crest is a mystery to me.

It looks a lot like the Crest, even in the largest size, is pretty much the same size as the first year TDs? It doesn't even look as big as the "oversized" (not really) Valiant Vac-fil.

#4 is oversized Balance?

Yes, 4 from left is an OS. It's almost identical in size to the full size second from the right but of course different sections.

[HughC]

It needs to be remembered that "oversize" refers to the girth of the pen not the length. At 12mm wide the 1750 is oversize, the same width as a PFM where as a first model TD is 11mm and a Snorkel 10mm.

Regards
Hugh

[david i]

Fountain Pen Journal had a strong piece on this one. Paul still has back issues.

http://www.fountainpenjournal.com

regards

david

[david i]

Some basic notions.

Original Crest essentially was a series unto itself, running 1937-1941. It offered couple sizes and multiple models as defined by materials and price point. All had open nibs.

Subsequent to this series, the word "Crest" tended to be used by Sheaffer to define model (rather than series) within larger series/families of pens, models with gold-filled caps. Off hand, all subsequent Crests had Triumph (conical) nib. The 1942-1945 wartime Sheaffers offered a Crest (gold filled cap) both long/clip and short Tuckaway within the Triumph familySheaffer's dominant pen that era. Post War Crest could be had as plain or deluxe (smaller and larger) with gold-filled caps and as Tuckaway (short). The 1949-1950 original Touchdown saw Crests with gold-filled caps. The 1951 TM (Thin Model) Touchdown had gold-filled cap Crest. 1952-9 Sheaffer Snorkel had gold-filled-cap Crest model.

Crest did return as a series rather than model in the 1990s. Gary Ellison has a thorough review of variants of those.

regards

d

[stub]

Do you happen to know off-hand which was the largest Crest made? My impression is that the original open nib Crest came in only 2 sizes.

The subsequent Triumph nib Crest came in 3 sizes?

The idea that the original Crest was a separate pen model and then the name was appropriated to define GF cap models with in a series is matching with what I am observing first hand but I would not have thought the cutoff for that was as early as end of the open nib model. I think it is quite helpful to think of it that way actually. I have an early open nib Crest. I have a couple late Pneumatic Crests. It is the spot in the middle that I am most murky about. The vac-fils/lever 1942-1947/8 era.

Thanks for your reply

[pajaro]

That's a lot of interesting info. Are the Cadet and Craftsman pens less expensive versions?

[david i]

The fattest Crest was Crest Deluxe post-WWII and pre TM TD, spanning celluloid and plunger filler era through Forticel injection plastic and Touchdown filler.

There really are not oversized 1940s pens, by conventional definitions, though some people call the large post-War pens "oversize".

Crest best is interpreted in the context of the series in which it finds itself.

regards

david

[lowks]

I have a Crest too. I accidentally called it Valiant in this video though. https://youtu.be/ez2ox7hofXk

[stub]

I was hoping someone with better eyes would chime in. I called it a Crest b/c it looks like one but please don't rely on my poor old eyes. I could be wrong.

[stub]

Crest_1 by foo bar, on Flickr

Crest_3 by foo bar, on Flickr

Crest_5 by foo bar, on Flickr

[stub]

Crest_2 by foo bar, on Flickr

Crest_4 by foo bar, on Flickr

Crest_6 by foo bar, on Flickr

[stub]

The cap looks like a poor fit in picture one. It is not. It is rotated to show the lever and cap. These sometimes have problems with the distal threads shrinking making the cap fit a problem. Thankfully this one does not show any of those issues though the area around the lever is somewhat distorted.

The mask is partially gone and there is a ding in the cap.

The nib has more of a "Waverley"-esque aspect to it than I have seen on most triumph nibs. Writes like a champ.

[HughC]

That's a lot of interesting info. Are the Cadet and Craftsman pens less expensive versions?

Yes.

[pajaro]

Thanks.

[stub]

Conical nib Crests always had Lifetime nibs and a white dot on the pen somewhere right?

[pajaro]

The conical nibs are Triumph nibs. Probably Lifetime. The Triumph nibs can be small or large. Some are on Snorkels.

[stub]

Let me try that again.

On Early Sheaffer Crest 1937-1950 (Lever/Vac) (this thread's topic, pre-pneumatic, not TD, not Snorkel) pens, do the ones with conical nibs always have LIFETIME on the nib and a white dot on the pen someplace?

I have one that I suspect someone has changed the nib on.