Diamond Medal Wide Band Fountain Pen

This week’s restoration was found at an antiques store in Central Wisconsin this Winter while taking a break during a business trip.  It was in a glass amidst many other pens and pencils.  Kind of a “Diamond Medal In The Rough”, pardon the pun….

I finally got around to working on it this week and below is the photo after I took the pen apart.  Two things stand out here.  First, the sac is completely hardened, showing that the pen had not been used, or opened in quite some time.  Second is the lever system.  This is a “hanging pressure bar” found on many of these Chicago pens.  Instead of the common jbar found on many lever fillers, the hanging bar was attached through a hinge in a circular anchor at the top of the cap.  See my article dated February 7, 2008 titled Rexall Monogram for a photo and brief discussion of this lever – bar system common to National Pen Products pens.

Unfortunately, the anchor was broken on this pen and I will have to improvise.

The pen was thoroughly cleaned.  I used a dremel and cleaner on the outside to the cap and barrel, including the gold cap band, lever, nib, and clip.  They did not show any signs of wear, and with gentle cleaning and I was able to be more aggressive once I determined they were not a cheap gold plate.  The inside of the cap was cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner and with qtips to get rid of the inevitable caked on ink.  The channels of the feed were traced with a sharp hobby knife and cleared.   I used a size 16 sac on this one ~ attaching it to the section/feed/nib with sac cement.

Below are two photos of the completed pen which measures 5 1/2 inches closed and 6 9/16 inches posted.

I then photographed the pen along side of a larger (width) Diamond Medal I have had for quite some time.  You can see that it is a narrow pen.  The wider pen compares in size to a large OS Sheaffer or Parker Duofold.

The nib is a Diamond Medal No. 2, fairly small to fit the narrower pen and section.  It has a fair amount of flex, not unusual to pens of this era.

Here is the crisp imprint on the clip, which cleaned to a very shiny gold.

Diamond Medal Pens were produced for Sears Roebuck and sold  by them during the 1920s and 1930s.  The earlier production pens of the 1920s came in a variety of plastics and were produced by National Pen Products of Chicago, IL.    This would be an NPP pen, that Sears would have probably sold in its stores and through its famous and popular catalog.   Later Diamond Medal Pens were produced for Sears by Parker, including vacumatic and button fillers that resemble the Parker pens of the 30s.  But those are for another day…

You never know where you might find a user and collector quality pen.  Thank you to those that have shared their “finds in the wild” with me back channel.  They are still out there…

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There Is A Woman In My Fountain Pen !

Who is this and why is her photo inlaid into this Good Service pen? I threw this question out to several people and the responses were varied. They ranged from the pen was given to loved ones at the time of this woman’s death, marriage, birthday or anniversary. The inlay is very smooth and not just a photo glued on to the pen. It is inlaid and quite well done.

What I do know is that this is a pen manufactured by either National Pen Products , probably using parts produced by C. E. Barrett, also of Chicago, or by Parker, who also made some Good Service Pens. Good Service was a Sears Brand, sold in their stores and through mail order. I would only be guessing, but I might lean toward this being a Parker product due to the green marble, and feed/section which look similar to several of the Parker Challengers and Parkettes that I have.

Anyway, back to the lovely woman in my pen. If anyone has seen other examples of these types of pens from this time period (30s – 40s), I would love to see them and hear what they were used for or why they were produced.

As for the restoration, it was a straight forward lever filler repair. However, as you can see the section and feed were brittle and came apart when I attempted to knock out the feed. This was easily fixed as I had a spare Challenger feed and section that fit the barrel and nib ( a Warranted 14k ).

I thoroughly cleaned the inside of the barrel and cap which were caked with blue ink, replaced the feed and section and refitted the nib. A size 16 latex sac was used to complete the filling system. The gold parts polished up nicely and the pen (and picture ) were polished and buffed.

Here is the end result. I like to think that the woman on my pen is much happier with her new surroundings.

For good measure, here is a photo of the imprint. I believe the faded logo in the middle is the Sears and Roebuck logo.

11-30-2012 Edit: David Nishamura has written an excellent web article on Doric Inlays in which he publishes Wahl Eversharp brochure that details that they will do similar inlay work to their Doric pens. Interesting reading and a glimpse into what was done to this pen, perhaps. Both Companies were in Chicago…..

A link to David’s excellent post is here.

Webster Fountain Pens

Webster pens were a brand sold through Sears stores and catalogs in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Here is an example of a catalog page with a selection of pens, including Websters from the Spring of 1924. This exact pen is not there, but many BCHR (black chased hard rubber) pens similar to it appear.

Additional information on Store Sold Pens appears in a post that I wrote on December 11, 2007.

I finally had some time to take this pen apart and it was no easy task. The section was very stubborn and I actually had to walk away from the pen yesterday and come back and try again this evening. Finally, the heat worked and the section came out with no cracks. Here is the result of the extraction of the sac and lever. Both would need to be replaced and I used a new j-bar and size 16 sac. The gold polished up well and the Warranted 4 nib has some flex to it.

The restored pen looks quite good and this is a bit surprising to me. The insides of the pen were quite dirty and the sac/pressure bar were a mess, but the exterior trim, rubber chasing, and imprints are almost mint.
It must have been stored very carefully for many years. As a collector, I am very thankful for this, and wish it happened more often.

Here is a picture if the finished product and side imprint. The SR on the logo stands for Sears and Roebuck.

Store Pens

Not storing pens – that will be the subject of another post at another time – but Store Pens. Many “department” stores, or “drug” stores, had their own brand of pens that were only available at their stores (or through mail order from them). In the introductory post of this blog, I showed an Eaton Pen, available through the Canadian Eaton Stores. Many US stores also had their own brands of Fountain Pens. I will highlight a few that I have restored with a bit of their history.

Lakeside

Lakeside pens were made for Montgomery Ward Stores to sell both in-store and through catalogs. Here is a discolored green flat-top lever filler that I have had for quite some time. I picked up the box and instructions at a later date, thus they are not original to the pen. The discoloration is due to the sac and ink inside deteriorating over time and reacting to the celluloid exterior.

The nib is a nice Warranted Number 8, and this pen is ready to write.

Webster

Webster is one of the Sears pens. They sold more than Webster’s, and I will get to some of those brands in later posts, but I will show a couple of examples of Webster Pens here. The first is a BCHR (black chased hard rubber) pen that probably dates to the 1920s. Sears contracted with Chicago area manufacturers to make their pens and their are several theories as to who manufactured these pens.

As you can see, the chasing of the black hard rubber is excellent on this pen. I have not yet restored this pen. It is in my repair queue and I hope to get to it shortly. It will need a new sac and pressure bar, but the rest of the pen is spotless, as you can see. The nib is a Warranted No. 4.

Here is another Webster, dating to the 1930s which looks very similar to a few Parker pens of the time period. There is speculation that Parker Pens made some of these for Sears at their Janesville, Wisconsin location. This is a button filler and I installed a new pressure bar and sac, as well as cleaning up the nib, feed and button. It writes well and has a Webster 14k No. 4 nib. I really like this pen due to the similarities it shares with the Parker Parkette and Challenger, which are of the same era.

These pens are just the tip of the iceberg, when discussing store-brand pens. Future posts will discuss Rexall, Thompson, and other Sears brands.