My turn to share my Esterbrook. I don't collect Esterbrooks. I just have this copper J that I don't sell because of certain nostalgia.
My mother had a copper Esterbrook J that only came out to write Christmas cards in the '50s and early '60s. She refused to buy pre-printed cards; every one was handwritten in green ink. Well, in the mid '60s, I was smitten with Illya Kuryakin's two-way communicator pen* on the TV show, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. "Open Channel D!" he would speak into his pen. I wanted one, but how? I searched for and found my mother's copper Esterbrook, and without any plan or forethought, I gutted it and trashed the section, nib and feed. I then searched in vain for something cool that would fit inside the barrel and cap, but nothing electronic was so small in the '60s! I lost interest and at some point pitched it before the following Christmas rolled around. I never did hear anything from Mom about a missing pen. (Insert guilt here.)
When the fountain pen bug bit decades later and I met Bert Heiserman at The Pen Haven, I asked Bert to put together a copper Esterbrook J for me. I showed it to my mother without explanation, and she said it was hers and I could have it. So I have it. I really should finally ink it. It's got a 9555 nib.
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Illya always did manage to escape from situations like this, but seemed to enjoy doing so.
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*Hey, you can actually buy a replica U.N.C.L.E. communicator pen.
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