Filling In More of the Ajax Story

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The Ajax appears on page 18 of The Catalogue, and at the time I wrote the book, all I knew of the brand made it appear to be a one-trick pony:

Each is marked only on the cap with the AJAX logo, so I’ve never put much stock in what colors they come in (for example, the Weidlich Pen Co. of Cincinnati is along the same lines; mixing and matching caps could give you nearly any color you want).

I noted in the book that pens had turned up with an imprint indicating these originated in Philadelphia - and thanks to American Writing Instrument Trademarks 1870-1953, I can tell you exactly where in Philadelphia:

John Lehn, doing business as the Ajax Pen Company, claimed that the mark was first used on March 4, 1924.  The address of the company as of the filing of the trademark that year was 1951 North Eighth Street, Philadelphia.

I’ve also learned since the book was written that there were more to the company’s pencil offerings than the ones I’d pictured:

Only one of these is marked, and it’s the one that has a really cool clip:

The marking is on the cap, and since the pencils are I believe earlier than 1924, it’s not surprising that the trademarked logo is absent:

Although the other one is unmarked, I keep it alongside this one because (1) the Ajax-marked one isn’t working, (2) the unmarked one is identical and (3) not only is it working, when I took it apart, it is unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere else:

There’s no markings on either to indicate this variation was patented, and there’s no patent issued to Lehn or assigned to Ajax listed in American Writing Instrument Patents Vol. 2: 1911-1945; perhaps one was never filed, or perhaps Lehn licensed someone else’s design.

Not perhaps . . . probably, I suppose, since the pencils pictured in the book were stock pencils sold under several names, and so was this one, which came after the ones shown in the book:

The color, the shape of that rounded top and the clip all point towards this one being made by Conklin.  So many of these are unmarked that it wasn’t until I took a closer look before throwing it in the junk box that I noticed the imprint:

I’ve had this one for awhile, but since I’d already noted in The Catalogue that Ajax was from Philadelphia, at the time I didn’t really have much new to say.  Fortunately, the new trademark book gave me a good reason to circle back around!