The Hintz Pen

The beginning of the 20th century was a booming time for the fountain pen as it established itself as a writing tool.  Hard rubber pens were produced by many companies and one retailer, in Reading Pennsylvania, sold his own branded eyedropper ~ The Hintz Pen.  J.G Hintz owned a Stationer’s store in Reading during the first half of the 1900s.  This advertisement shows an early photo of Mr. Hintz and discusses his wares.

Here is the Hintz Pen that I worked on this week.  Below is the exploded view, prior to knocking out the nib and feed to clean. There was quite a bit of ink to clean out as I had dipped the pen several times to enjoy the experience.  More on the nib later..  You can see that it is an eyedropper filled pen and black chased hard rubber (BCHR).  Fortunately, the pen has withstood time well and the chasing and rubber are in good shape, with minimal discoloration or wear.  As with all eyedroppers of the time, the section/feed/nib unscrew from the body of the pen and the ink was poured into the barrel (by an eyedropper type device).    The bonus feature of this pen is the gold overlay on the barrel.  It also has withstood time well and is clean and crisp.

Mr. Hintz sent out birthday post cards and Christmas reminder cards to his customers ~ advertising his product line.  I have been fortunate to find a few of these and pair them with the pen.

A couple of things stand out to me.  First – pens were a major gift and probably given most at special occasions such as Birthdays and Christmas.  Second – the cards were written using several different languages which reflect the high concentrations of immigrants in the United States at the time.

The pen depicted in the card directly below is very similar to the pen I have restored, though mine would have been more expensive than this one due to the  gold decoration.  I wonder what the SOLID GOLD pen looked like that is referred to below?

Below are photos of the completed pen after I have reinserted the feed and and nib and applied a bit of silicone grease to the section threads.  I tested the pen overnight for leaking and it held ink with no leaks.  The pen measures 5 7/8 inches closed and 6 7/8 inches posted.

I have placed an estimated  date of 1910 on this pen.  I have no direct evidence of this as the advertisements and post cards carry no dates.  My estimate comes from the fact that several eyedropper pens that look very similar to this have been placed at this time  by pen historians.  This brings up the question as to where these pens were produced.  Again, I have no Hintz records to go by, but can make a few guesses.   Reading, Pennsylvania is located west of Philadelphia, and about halfway between Philadelphia and Bloomsburg, PA.  Bloomsburg is significant as it was the home of  the Paul E. Wirt Pen Company . Clicking on the name will lead to and excellent history of Wirt Pens. This pen resembles photos I have seen of some Wirt Pens and it is not too long a stretch to think that they could have been produced by Wirt.   The nib suggests another producer.   It is a Franklin No. 3 (seen below).  The Franklin Pen Company also produced pens for other companies and the Franklin Nib would seem to make this the most likely scenario, given no hard written evidence.

The imprint and gold overlay, still crisp clean.

The Franklin / Philadelphia nib which leads to a guess as to where the parts were made. The nib, as with many of these vintage eyedropper nibs, is extremely flexible.

These regional pens pop up from time to time and it is fun to try and trace their history and relationship to the larger pen community.  Certainly, the Hintz Store sold a quality product and this one has survived after one hundred years.