Eclipse Gold Filigree Fountain Pen

This past weekend I decided to visit a local antique mall with one of my daughters. It is near where I work and several visits over the past several years have netted little of interest to the pen collector other than a stray ink bottle or blotter.

We were lucky and found the items pictured below. A New Years Post Card, Parker Jotter, Scripto cartridge pen and the find of the day, a Gold Filigree Eclipse Fountain Pen. The grand total for the four items was $11.50, with the Eclipse ringing in at $3.50. The post card was more expensive!  (The actual cost of the pen was $7.00, but they had a 50% off sale.)

Here is a photo of the pen after I got it home and took it apart.  I was a little worried about the gold and if it was a cheap gold plating, but a trip to the internet and test of a small corner revealed that I would be able to polish it to my heart’s content, with no worry of ruining the finish.

The first thing I tackled was polishing the gold.  It came out very well and it really shines.  I removed all of the old sac and cleaned out the cap, section, and feed.  The nib on the pen was a “Durium” gold plated nib, that would lose it’s gold color with any attempts to clean it.  A pen this beautiful on the outside deserves better, so I searched my parts bins for a suitable replacement.  Using the old nib as a size model, I determined that a Waterman No. 2 nib was the same size and the fit was perfect.  So I replaced the nib and fitted the nib/feed back into the section.  After sanding all of the old sac off of the section I was able to fit a size 16 sac firmly to the end.  The old j-bar needed to be replaced as well, and after fitting a new one in I fit the section back into the barrel.

Here is the finished product, water tested and ready to write.

The Eclipse Pen Company was founded by Marx Finstone and had offices in New York and Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the 1920s. I estimate this pen was manufactured in the 20s in the New York location.

There are two excellent references for Eclipse Pens that I have found

Eclipse Information at Fountain Pen Network
Eclipse Pens at Pensandwatches.com

In summary, Eclipse Pen made their name line and a few lower priced lines, including Marxton and Park Row. Their higher line pen was the Monroe.  I have seen a few of these and they are known for their interesting styling and stepped caps.

The information also refers to the Klein Clip. Here is a close up.

These pens typically came with Eclipse or Warranted nibs.  As I mentioned above, I had a Waterman from an old Waterman 52 parts pen, and here is a close up of that nib, which fit perfectly into the section.  It was the same size as the cheap gold plated nib that came on the pen.  Here is a picture of the Waterman Ideal New York No. 2.

Finally, a nice close up of a crisp lever imprint and some detail of the flowery etchings on the filigree.

So, if there is a moral to this pen restoration it is to keep up the hunt for nice vintage pens.  You never know when you might stumble into a gem.  Oh, and as the timely postcard states:  HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!