Spors Dice Pen Research

One of my favorite posts was one I wrote on September 17, 2008 titled (and linked here) Spors Fountain Pen Entertainment Center.  Not because the pen is a fantastic and valuable pen, but just that it was fun to share what a surprise it was when I opened the pen up to clean the compass and the dice fell out.  At the time, I ran the pictures by some other collectors and no one seemed to recall any such pens.

Below is a picture that appears in that post, showing the compass removed from the cap-end, with the enclosed dice falling out.

I recently purchased an old SPORS mail order catalog from 1933, in hopes that it would have some information on this pen. Below is a photo of the cover of this mail order catalog, produced by the Spors Company, of Le Center, MN.

When I got to page 23 I was rewarded with a lineup of these Japanese imports, which includes this pen.  You can also see a standard crescent filler, similar to the one restored in my post of February 13, 2008, Made in Japan.

Here is a close up of the advertisement showing the dice stored under the compass.

And here is the specific wording promoting this version.  Interestingly, the compass is the selling point, with emphasis placed on it being removable and worn separately.  I am not sure why you would be attracted to this and it is quite amusing.  Still no mention of the dice other than in passing.  At least I was able to find them in this catalog which narrows the age of this pen to near 1933.

Addendum:  Spors catalogs are quite entertaining to the pen collector.  In a separate location of the catalog you can see where they used pens to promote other products. (Or was it the other way around?).  This $.49 deal was quite a package ~ Perfume, Face Powder, Crystal Necklace, and Pen/Pencil set.  The catalog contains many more of these mix and match deals aimed at retailers, as well as the general public.  Mr. Spors was a master at mail-order and sales.

Part of Fountain Pen Restoration is the placing of the fountain pen in history. The discovery of this catalog finally allowed me to place this curio pen near 1933.

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