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