Spors Fountain Pens / Live Update

I have posted several articles about Spors Fountain Pens and their advertising.  I have found their pens interesting, challenging to restore, and local, as they were marketed out of LeCenter, MN.

For reference or if you missed these articles written over the last couple of years, here are links to each of these articles ~

Made In Japan ~ February 13, 2008
Spors Fountain Pen Entertainment Center ~ September 17, 2008
Spors Fountain Pen Advertising in 1927 ~ March 25, 2009

I have recently received some correspondence from the grandson of Frank (Franz) Spors, Mr. Dennis Spors.  He is still operates a consulting business in Michigan and uses the same Company Name as his grandfather.

He shared some interesting information on the Spors Company.

Quoting from an email correspondence that he has kindly given me permission to share ~ “The fountain pens were the beginning of a business that lasted as a wholesaler into the 1960’s. In the beginning primarily stationary and novelties were featured. Later there were yearly catalogs of items, even diamonds and watches. Spors Company provided all of these to independent retail outlets throughout the Midwest. Their strength was the sales network. With the growth of chain outlets expanding into small towns, the business did not survive in that form. The business does however continue.”

In the articles above, I have mentioned that some of these Spors Pens were made in Japan and WWII obviously stopped the shipment of these pens to Minnesota distribution.  Mr. Spors shares this additional interesting information on his grandfather and the challenges of the World War.

“Frank had to be careful during WWII and not try to order anything from the enemy / neutral sources. Given that most of his cousins were German Staff Officers, the FBI watched him throughout the war.”

Once again, thank you to Dennis Spors for sharing this information with me on the Spors Company and its founder, Frank (Franz) Spors.

I have acquired a 1933 Spors catalog and will be sharing some pen advertisements from it in the future as I get a chance to scan them.

Happy Fourth of July.