Marxton Flat Top

Large Flat Top fountain pens from the 20s and 30s are some of my favorite pens due to their size and comfort in my hand. They also tend to have large nibs that hold up to extended use and their sacs hold more ink.

This weeks restoration is an example of another of these. In case you missed them, here are a few more large flat top posts from the past:

A Dixie in Illinois – November 26, 2008
A Dixie in Michigan – August 1, 2008
Universal Fountain Pen – December 23, 2007

Below is the  Black pen after I have taken it apart.  You can see that the j bar is broken at the top, which is quite common.  The sac is still shaped, though hard as a rock.

I used a new j bar and a size 18 sac in this repair.  I thoroughly cleaned the section of all remains of the old sac and shellac.  This is necessary to assure a solid adhesion to the new sac.  The feed and nib were cleaned.  The nib is a plain 14K Warranted nib that is similar in size to the Warranted No. 8s found often in these over-sized flat tops.

The clip was previously polished vigorously and has lost much of its gold plating.  This is the only negative to the pen.  The lever, cap band, and nib are still shiny gold.  The clip is imprinted with “MARXTON” below a wreath.  The lever has a wreath at the circular lift point.  There are no imprints on the barrel, though there is a smooth section for an engraving.  The rest of the cap and barrel is a series of six tight lines from top of pen to bottom separated by a smooth alley.

Marxton Pens were a brand of Eclipse Pens.  You can refer to a post on Eclipse with references here.    Marxton and Park Row were lesser brands under the Eclipse banner.  Marxton gets its name from the founder of Eclipse, Marx Finstone.  This is the only Marxton that I have touched, but I have seen photos of some very colorful large flat tops.

I would date this pen to the late 20s / early 30s time period, though I have no direct advertising evidence.   The pen measures 5 5/16″ closed and 6 3/8″ posted.