Sea Gull Pens II

On June 1, 2009 I posted a restoration of a Japanese Sea Gull Fountain Pen.  It was an aerometric-fill Parker Vacumatic look alike.  Clicking on the link will show photos and detail the restoration.  Since that time, I have not seen another Sea Gull, until I picked up this lever filler recently.  Below is a photo of the pen after I took it apart.  No particular problems with the components other than the usual wear.  My guess is that it was unused, as there are no ink remnants on the feed or nib, and the barrel has maintained its original color.  The pattern is often referred to as Koi.  I have most often see this pattern on modern Platinum Fountain Pens, produced in Japan.

The trim on the clip and cap presented the biggest challenges on this pen.  As you can see from the photo above, there has been considerable brassing to both.  I was able to take most of the darkening off of the cap band and clip as you can see below.  After taking the pen apart and cleaning the gold trim for quite some time, I refit the feed and nib back into the section.  I then trimmed a size 16 sac to fit in the barrel and it fit snugly with the usable jbar already inside.  I covered the sac with talc to assure a smooth fit.  Note that the section is a threaded fit, not friction, a nice touch for a pen of this size and quality.

A photo of the finished product is below.  It is a very small pen, measuring 4 1/16 inches capped and 4 13/16 inches posted.

This photo of the nib shows that it is in unused condition, and marked “Special Pen”.  This reminds me of the Aerometric Sea-Gull that I restored in June of 2009 that had the phrase “Special Best In The World” printed on the aerometric filler pressure bar.  The maker of Sea-Gull Fountain Pens clearly enjoyed using Special as its adjective of choice.  My favorite part of this pen is the clip which is held on by the black plastic jewel which screws in to the top of the cap.  The clip seems overly ornate for this pen and has the words SEA GULL printed top to bottom.

From an old post, the “Special” aerometric filler ~

Here is the imprint for Sea Gull Fountain Pen.

As covered in the June 2009 post, Sea Gull Pens were Japanese made and active in the 1950s.  The previous aerometric filler Parker clone would seem to fit that time period.  This lever filler would seem to come from an earlier time period, but I have no way of knowing its production dates.  If any of you have any additional information on these pens, I would love to hear from you.

After the pen was finished, I filled it up with Waterman Red, a bright orangy red that matches the koi spots.  It works well with the rigid fine nib.  Though my collection primarily focuses on vintage US pens, it is fun to venture to Europe and Asia from time to time to find less than common pens.

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Sea Gull Fountain Pens

POST # 85

Another Parker Vacumatic clone here.  I have posted another article on a Wilson Fountain Pen (link) back on February 9, 2009.  Wilson Fountain Pens were made in India.  This pen, a SEA – GULL is very similar in design, and until I handled it, I assumed it was a vacumatic fill as well.  As you can see below, the surprise was that it is an aero-metric.  So, SEA – GULL took two Parker items ~ the design of the Vacumatic, and the Aero-metric filler and combined them into this interesting pen.

Restoration is quite easy.  The metal sac guard is friction fit and can be pried off of the section quite easily.  The old sac had hardened and broken inside of the sac guard.  The section was cleaned and the old sac remnants were scraped off of the tip.  The cap ring and clip were polished and no gold was lost, so they are not cheap gold plate.  However the nib is gold plate and much of it had already worn off, so I polished it down to the silver color.  I attached a standard rubber size 16 sac to the section and refit the sac guard/pressure bar.

Below is a photo of the completed filling assembly.  It tested well in taking on water after a night of drying.  The unit simply screws back into the barrel.

Here are a couple of photos of the completed pen, measuring 4 3/4″ capped and 5 1/2″ posted.

A close up of the nib reveals the familiar Parker Arrow (?) and “Sea – Gull / Special Pen”

And in case you did not know, the Special was the Best in the World, as declared on the pressure bar.

The imprint is quite faded, but reads

SEA – GULL

FOUNTAIN PEN

This photo captures three pens ~ Top to Bottom ~

Sea-Gull

Parker Vacumatic (early 1940s)

Wilson (India) c 1940s-50s

There is not much information available on Sea – Gull Fountain Pens.  What I have been able to gather from several sources is that they were produced in Japan in the 1950s.  The filling system would seem to support this. I have seen photos of others that are solid in color.  If any of you have additional information…as always, please let me know.