That's actually a pretty interesting question. I may pose that to some of the venerable vintage gurus I know. One thing that immediately springs to mind is the Sheaffer "Balance". If you take note of this page, you can see a patent image with the pen posted. I somehow have it in mind that I've seen other documentation, and possible advertising of the time, that touted the balance of the pen in this configuration. However, I am both neither a pen historian nor possessing a youthful brain, so I might not be completely in the clear on this. It's a place to start, though.
"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
Thanks. I don't have time to look too deeply now, but I'm very much interested in what you find out.
The Sheaffer Balance, was at the time when movie stars were becoming prevalent and influencing fashion and behavior, but that's just my hunch on the topic. There were earlier generations of fountain pen users.
That's interesting, because I just went to try a few pens and when I picked up my (only) Sheaffer Balance, I thought of what you said and thought I'd try posting it. Well, lo and behold, the cap does not post. It wobbles loosely on the end. Perhaps if I ground it on roughly it would stay, but I'm not going to do that. Yet the article you linked, clearly shows an old diagram with it posted, and the author goes on about posting was a feature of the Balance. So, ... I don't know what's going on with that.
I wonder if posting became a natural event as people who had been using longer dip pens for most of their lives began using shorter fountain pens since posting the cap adds length. Perhaps some of those who use dip pens on a regular basis can tell us whether they post or not.
Pens like Pelikan M200, MB Mozart, Cross Apogee, Sailor Profit are more comfortable posted in many hands. I use them both ways, more often posted. But in general I don't post.
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