Ritest of the Rite

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That same seller that had the 40-pencil lot including that Ripley Vacumatic posted a similar lot a few months ago, which included this one:

I wasn’t entirely sure what this one would be, with those fuzzy pictures.  When it arrived, I found it was a Rite-Rite:

That distinctive plastic really stood out.  The only other ones I’ve seen along these lines have been in an equally distinctive, teal-colored  plastic:

There’s some nice detail work on the lower barrel:

And on the top, a surprise that didn’t show up in the pictures:

That’s not a sticker: that “3 1/4" emblem is built into the plastic, and I haven’t seen that feature on the teal ones.   I thought maybe it might be a more-permanent-than-usual price sticker, so I checked the library at the Pen Collectors of America (www.pencollectorsofamerica.com) to find out at what price point they were offered.  The library has a 1938 Rite-Rite catalog, and this one is listed – at a price of $74.60 per gross:

The “3 1/4" was the model designation, derived from its lead capacity of 3 1/4 inches.   This is only the second color I’ve encountered, but they came in “black and assorted pearl metallic colors,” served . . .

. . . in a “jewelry type display box.”   How cool is that!