Cob (August 1st, 2018), Jon Szanto (July 31st, 2018)
"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
~ Benjamin Franklin
Just a post-script on my image of the "No-name" and a response regarding why this can be so fun... and the value of having a wide net. When I got these a couple years back I posted in a couple places, people thought they were cool, but there was one Facebook pen forum that had just the right people to chime in. Took me a while to find the thread but I'll pair some images with the comments they made. It really takes the detective work to another level and make it interesting in new ways (and, of course, you can always just be owning a POS pen).
My friend Allan Goforth jumped in quickly to mention that the material looked like a pattern that Waterman had used called "mahogany Then the next person to respond was Luis Leite, who said (and offered a photo):
"A custom order and made by Swan . You have similar pens with same clip, lever ,shape and plastic, with Swan imprint and also with Monogram or Belmont imprint for the Rexall stores .On the left you have a Mogram set and on the right a Swan pen."
Then Rick Krantz mused aloud as to whether it was a material Conklin used. Jonathan Veley chimed in:
The article includes this nice photo (which I rotated for this post):" The plastic is most often associated with Eagle - which made Monogram and Belmont pens for a time. I've got a Michael-George, a Belmont and an Eagle compared in this article."
Marc Shiman then offered the following:
As is often the case, we have to go and hunt down stuff. Later in the thread he posted this comment/photo:"Mabie Todd towards the end used that same clip and plastic. I don't have any photos of Swans with two cap bands though. All that means very little, by the end of US Mabie Todd, I doubt they were making their own components and were probably buying them from the same place this company did. Camel also used this plastic"
"Conklin Nozac and Camel parts - I don't have a cap for the Conklin, so was thinking of trying to make one from the Camel. The Conklin cap pictured was for size. A lot more ambition than capability."
One of our occasional contributors on FPG, Daniel Kirchheimer, offered up the following, a delightful addition:
"Color is not perfectly accurate but you get the idea..."
The rest of the thread involved somewhat tangential topics, mostly relating to the difficulty of pinning down exact names on colors/patterns. Some of these objects were originally termed by fairly vanilla labels, like "Brown", and various other names have come into play. The dedicated collectors know all these details... or keep at it as much as they can!
I hope this has been of interest, especially in furthering Will's initial reasons for posting: that objet obscur du désir can certainly be worth obtaining.
"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
~ Benjamin Franklin
Yes there is.
Click on "go advanced", then "Manage Attachments", Browse - select your file, upload and at the bottom of the box you will see add... I have just done it with this relatively obscure Swan - a silver split lever from 1919 - the only year that they were made.
Split Lever Stub Italic.jpg
Cob
Vive les chevaliers! A bas les têtes rondes!
That's a wonderful pen with a glorious stub. Envy.
Cob (August 1st, 2018)
This curiosity is called "Stylus". Certainly strange and I suppose obscure. It came with a horrid steel nib - I fitted an Esterbrook Relief nib that I had by me:German Shorty 2.jpgGerman Shorty 3.jpg
Cob
Vive les chevaliers! A bas les têtes rondes!
penwash (July 17th, 2019), Sailor Kenshin (August 6th, 2018)
I had a one off pen made by a NY inventor.
This was a lever filled pen, early 50s. The pen and nib were quite short, the cap was in two parts, one sleeve had a glass container the idea being that you could fill the pen whilst travelling. I found the patent for the pen and later offered the pen to the descendants of the inventor, not interested.
The design fault was that you could not fit the nib into the narrow neck of the glass bottle, which in any case only held around 1-2ml.
Cob (August 1st, 2018)
"They come as a boon and a blessing to men,
the Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley Pen."
Jon Szanto (August 1st, 2018)
The Harris pen is fairly obscure. Or at least I do not come across them very often. This model is a 1927 Harris University pen. It was, as its name suggests, aimed at students. The cap jewel unscrews and can be replaced with a different to reflect what colour ink is in the pen. I rebuilt this pen with parts from two identical pens and have kept the scrap in my pieces box.
Harrispen.JPG
Cob (August 7th, 2018), penwash (August 4th, 2018), Sailor Kenshin (August 6th, 2018)
The most obscure FP brand in my collection is this 1935 Edel Chromstahl that I bought from Lexaf some 5 years ago:
Edel.jpg
Last edited by carlos.q; August 4th, 2018 at 12:30 PM.
NibsForScript (August 16th, 2018), penwash (August 4th, 2018), Sailor Kenshin (August 6th, 2018), Scrawler (August 4th, 2018)
Are Summit pens obscure? I never see anyone discuss them. The pen at the bottom is a lever filled 1940 model. The one at the top is a 1930s bulb filler. These pens are characterized by being heavily chaised.
summit0.jpg
AzJon (August 8th, 2018), Cob (August 7th, 2018), NibsForScript (August 16th, 2018), penwash (August 6th, 2018), Sailor Kenshin (August 6th, 2018)
Let's swing to Italian pens.
This is a vintage Lalex pen. I don't know if it has a specific model number, but it's marked Lam. Oro (Laminato Oro, or "gold-laminated" in English).
Look at the chasing pattern on the gold. I think it's very cool.
The interesting part is that, for a pen that looks like a C/C filler, it actually has a fully functioning (albeit small) piston filling system. I cleaned it up, put some silicone grease to improve the suction and the pen fills with water (and ink) once more.
Deb (August 7th, 2018), NibsForScript (August 16th, 2018), Sailor Kenshin (August 6th, 2018)
Vue-All. It's my latest acquisition.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
Deb (August 7th, 2018), Jon Szanto (August 6th, 2018), Sailor Kenshin (August 7th, 2018)
Lighting isn't great, but here's an extremely rare Rex, a German pen, in excellent condition. I plucked this from a table at the DC pen show two days ago. I haven't tried writing with it yet.
IMG_1358.JPG
Cob (August 7th, 2018), Deb (August 7th, 2018), NibsForScript (August 16th, 2018), penwash (July 17th, 2019), Sailor Kenshin (August 7th, 2018)
Not exactly obscure (they are school pens after all) but uncommon around here —
Above: LUS Giubileo Scuola with adjustable steel nib. Student version of the Giubileo 53.
Below: Lincoln Giubileo Esport. Very similar to the Scuola. Not sure if this was a sub-brand, OEM version, or a knock-off.
LUS&Lincoln.jpg
Cob (August 7th, 2018), Deb (August 7th, 2018), penwash (August 8th, 2018), Sailor Kenshin (August 7th, 2018)
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