J. HARRIS pen and sub brands . Third tier pens ? YES they are!!! But have a look please!

• The photos of the plastic pens were worked on  as usual by my friend João Pavão Martins to whom I wish to thank.

J. Harris a NY City pen manufacturer , I would say a less known pen manufacturer is considered by the old fountain pen collectors community as a third tier pen maker. Anyway they made interesting pens in black chased hard rubber  with different filling mechanisms: Eyedropper, matchstick filler and lever filler .
In his article published in PEN WORLD MAGAZINE from June 2011, Richard Binder wrote: J. HARRIS & SON was located in New York City. The company got its start during the era of slip caps and hard rubber , and survived  into the late 1940s , renaming itself somewhere along the way to become  the MAJESTIC Pen Company. Early examples of Harris's work include the cone cap lever filler and the screw cap matchstick filler shown above . By the end of the 1930s MAJESTIC was cranking out a wide variety of very atractive pens that were decently made but still suffered from thin metal parts with thinner gold plating . Most had untipped steel nibs , but top line MAJESTIC pens still carried gold nibs as in the old days. HARRIS sold pens under the AMBASSADOR , UNIVERSITY and CONGRESS brands as well as under its own name. ( Richard Binder in Pen World Magazine , June 2011, pages 68 and 69 ).
I would like to add to this information the following: HARRIS also made pens under PRESIDENT brand .
Some MAJESTIC pens has no gold nibs but gold plated with its own imprint.( see photos ).
Any further information  to lleite@netcabo.pt  about this pen manufacturer will be welcomed and published in this blog.

 PEN WORLD MAGAZINE ,  June 2011 .  Text by Richard Binder

 Three black hard rubber matchstick filler  pens with same size and shape: from top to bottom, a BAIRD & NORTH, a J. HARRIS ( printed on the magazine and finally an AIKIN LAMBERT .
BAIRD & NORTH was a silversmith and if they made some nice overlays ( for Crocker as an example ) they did not make pens! So some pen manufacturer  made this one. AIKIN LAMBERT AND J. HARRIS , both are now recognized as fountain pen manufacturers but... the same size and shape are too much coincidence !!!

Detail of the nibs ( no detail of the J.HARRIS nib printed in the magazine )

Detail of the sections ( compare again with the section of the J. HARRIS pen printed in the magazine )

And finally details of both matchstick fillers mechanisms

MAJESTIC PENS

 More MAJESTIC fountain pens

 More MAJESTIC fountain pens ( ladies size )

Another Majestic ladies size, made with a nice and unusual plastic!

More MAJESTIC fountain pens ( first three from left ) , two ALL AMERICAN Conklins , a SWAN SWALLOW made with the same plastic........and finally a small WEIDLICH !!!!

 AMBASSADOR  pens

From the  left to the right: an UNIVERSITY, two CONGRESS and two PRESIDENT pens

Details of two MAJESTIC gold nibs in diferent sizes

Detail of a MAJESTIC gold plated nib ( gold plated completely lost )

Detail of the poor quality of gold plating in these nice pens

Detail of a very nice MAJESTIC  clip. You can find traces ( or inspiration )  based on  this clip in some very expensive modern pens ( David Oscarson pens for example )