PARKER #11 sterling silver cable chased design overlay, eyedropper filled taper cap pen. The latest arrival to my collection.

The PARKER #11  cable chased design overlay, eyedropper filled taper cap pen was made in two versions : one gold filled  already posted on this blog ( and a sterling silver one ). Both pens have no PARKER imprint or any other imprint  on the barrel ( for instance the pat. , sterling silver or gold filled or whatever! )  but instead of  that both have the pat. and the Parker imprint on  the black hard rubber taper cap. This happens also on the #11 aluminum Parker version. Besides that the sterling barrel ends in an abrupt way on the bhr barrel's end wich doesn't  happen with the gold filled version wich ends like in the section's junction with a kind of ring. I was intrigued with this and the possibility of a defect but when I consulted the first Fischler & Schneider book I could see not only in the cover but also in the page iii ( introduction ) a similar pen.


This is a scan of the pen represented on the  Fischler & Schneider book.

 My pen ( the pics are not mine but from the seller ).

The referred abrupt end....

The end of the sterling barrel on the section with a kind of a ring.....

The cap imprint ( partial ) . Later on I will add more pics

My gold filled version with similar barrel's ends.

Now some questions: why George S. Parker  decision not to mark these very early overlays ? 
Were they also made  by Heath ...or not yet?  If not who was the maker ? 
As a matter of fact I have a dip pen and a pencil in sterling silver with exactly the same pattern only marked sterling silver but not Heath ! 
Have a look at them

The sterling imprint on the dip pen

The sterling imprint on the pencil

And now a late dip pen (?) more ergonomic but with different pattern and imprinted sterling and also with the H inside a square wich was Heath hallmark

So I think that everything is correct with my pen and I would like to thank to George Kovalenko who helped me to find the year of the manufacture of this pen ( sometime after 1894 ) .

On the last days a nice discussion about this pen was open on the facebook group " fountain pen collectors".
Here is the link for those who use the FB:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/pen.collectors/permalink/10151683533943659/?comment_id=10151686241293659&offset=0&total_comments=17

To the others who do not use FB here is the complete discussion:

A WILLIAMSON PEN with pivoting "lever"

The pivoting "lever" was not a  real pull lever but a small gold filled metal blade wich  actuated over the pressure bar to depress the rubber sac with lateral movements ( instead of vertical ) . At least two pen makers used this kind of filling system : Williamson and Held ( both of them from Janesville ).
Thanks to my friend João Pavão Martins who worked on this nice photo.

Red hard rubber with sterling silver overlay #420 Waterman's eyedropper pen

This big pen (  with a #416  in the midlle just to compare the sizes) ) was made for the first time in 1902. It seems that due to it's  size it was only  made by customer order . It is a very impressive pen!
This photo was worked on by my friend João Pavão Martins to whom I wish to thank. 


After tis post I received this email from George Kovalenko a very well know collector and vintage fountain pen expert to whom I wish to thank his collaboration:


Hi Luiz,

Concerning your RHR #420 Waterman's with sterling silver filigree:

Gorgeous pen, by the way. And congrats. But let me raise a few issues with your blog post.
http://www.oldfountainpensjustforfun.blogspot.ca/2013/03/red-hard-rubber-with-sterling-silver.html

You say it has an overlay, but the better name for it would be a filigree. Overlays are solid, and filigrees are pierced with openings.

You also say that the pen "was made for the first time in 1902". Where did you get that date?
First of all, Waterman did not make RHR pens until at least 1906-07. I will post something about this issue on L&P tomorrow in a new thread.

Second, the Art Nouveau filigree came in two styles, which were very similar. The first onewas completely asymmetrical, including the indicia, and may have appeared as early as 1902. It also had a slightly rounded cap top. The second one was asymmetrical only in the vine filigree, and the indicia is placed and framed by the vines symmetrically. The cap top on this one has a slightly domed top with a squared edge. This type didn't appear until late 1907, or early 1908. Your pen has the second type of filigree.

And lastly, as late as 1897, Waterman still had only nib sizes #2 to #6. The #7 & #8 didn't make their first appearance until 1907, and the #10 nib didn't appear until about 1910-11. So your pen must date from at least this period, or after.

Sinceely,

George.

Four unusual SWAN pens

First pen is a US SWAN made at the final production of that factory. What it is unusual is that the barrel's imprint says: SWAN VICHY PEN and under this imprint there are another one saying PDG  ( wich means in French:  President Directeur General the corresponding in US to the CEO ). The other unusual detail is the fact that this pen it is not a lever filler as usual but a button filler ! Can we conclude that it was an export Swan pen made on the beginning of the war and exported to France ?

After I post this pen and my comments I received this email
 from  George  Kovalenko who of course is right in all the comments he did:


Luiz:

The carat mark on the Swan pen may be hiding under the section, 
but I don't think it is a for the French market. I think it is a "Capacity" 
pen, not "Vichy", and "PDG" may stand for "Pending", as in "Other 
Patents Pending". Earlier the pen was a spiral-twist-rod piston filler, 
patent no. 1,518,548, but David Moak's book, p.177, says it was later 
made as a button filler, possibly Carman's patent no. 2,003,479.

After reading this I did laugh until tears rolled down my face !!!! And  let me tell you that I was tempted to remove all the text I wrote when I posted the pen. It was a ridiculous text and 
a shame  for any collector. Anyway and after thinking a little I decided to left the original text with the considerations because : 
1 - the goal of my blog it is not " I there , look to pens I have " 
but a blog to discuss some pens of my collection : their 
complexity, used raw materials, design, colors, filling systems  and so on.



2 - as the name says it is a blog for fun and for that reason not a perfect blog.

3 - finally it is an example how a a fast and not well fundamented approach ( even seeming correct ) can be a disaster and very shameful . So this was a lesson to myself and in the future I will be more cautious




MESSAGE :
If you think you know everything , bear in your mind that you don't.
Keep away your hubris , be modest and try to listen and discuss in a modest way the opinions of the other collectors.
Try to fundament your opinions even when you think that it is not necessary because everything is to obvious ( the presented case it  is a nice example ! )

The imprint is faint but you can read it all on the various pics

Two Eternal Swan pens, in scarlet color and  nice condition ( NOS ) .

A mottled olive hard rubber clipless SWAN lever filler pen

The Reddy Todd #4 pen

The Edward Todd & Co. begun its activity manufacturing nibs and pencil  leads. The company was founded in 1871 by Edward Todd Sr. In New York city after he bought a company called Kurtz & Monaghan.
Edward Todd was later on, cofounder of the well known Mabie , Todd & Company ( 1860-1868 ).

Edward Todd Jr. son of the company founder sued his father and his partner ( Mabie ) on the 30th of October 1897 in order to obtain the “volunteers” dissolution of the company .
Edward Todd Sr. died three years later wich means that the Edward Todd pen models made on the beginning of the XX century until 1930 were made under the direction of the company by Edward Todd Jr. after the rupture with Mabie in 1897.
This pen is made in red hard rubber , with engraved vertical lines a lever filler system, with 10,8 cm lenght when closed and  probably produced during the 20s .
Photos are a courtesy of Carlos Sanches Álamo from whom I bought this pen and the text was translated from the text he publishd in “ Castelhano language “ .

Today the 7th of April 2013 I received this email from my friend and fountain pen collector Thierry Nguyen to whom I wish to thank for his collaboration :



Dear Luiz,

As a regular reader of Pentrace, I miss your Sunday postings, so this morning I decided to visit your blog, to see if you are still posting there.
Once again, I discovered many wonderful pens from your collection and interesting articles.
As you know, my main interest is for French pens and, of course, Mabie Todd Swan. That's why I was even more interested in The Reddy Todd #4 pen article.
However, there is some confusion about the history of the company and specially about the father against son court case.
As you correctly wrote, although it should not be "later on" but "earlier on", "Edward Todd was later on, cofounder of the well known Mabie, Todd & Company" and he remained a partner there from 1860 to 1868, when he left the Mabie Todd company.
So in 1897, when Edward Todd Jr. sued his partners in the Edward Todd company, the other partner beside his father was not "(Mabie)", as you state in your article, but a certain Charles S. Freer.
At that date it had been nearly 30 years that Edward Todd had not been in business with the Mabie Todd company!
I know it's only a small detail in history, but I think there has been enough confusion during many years between the two companies that we should do our best to avoid to add some more.
I look forward to read many more articles from you and see more pens from your fantastic collection.
Best regards,
Thierry

IMPROVED MOORE PEN

PHOTOS courtesy of Carlos Sanchez Álamo

A crescent filler WIRT pen with locker....

After posting yesterday the GRIESHABER pen I did remember that I have a #3 WIRT pen also with a crescent filler but with some differences:

1 - the crescent is smaller and not in metal but in ebonite,

2 - thought it also has a locker sistem to the crescent and also a turning knob at barrel's end to actuate on the locker , that locker is different because it has an outer and an inner part and it consists in  a single metal piece going from the barrel's end ( inside  it ) and it comes out  in the form of a flat "nail"  near the crescent. Have a look to the details on the following pics.

The PEN

Detail of the crecent filler in ebonite and the outer part of the locker in the locked position.

Detail of the outer part of the locker in the unlocked position

Detail of the turning knob ( closed position )

Detail of the turning knob in open position. You can see on the two different pics the inner part and the beginning  of the locker  .

Two pics of the barrel's imprint

Detail of the #3 WIRT gold nib and on the next pic a detail of the classic WIRT feeder.