A Little Holier Cow

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Chris Egolf and I did a bit of horse trading at the DC Show; he wanted something of mine that I really didn’t want to part with, but when this one was thrown in as part of the deal, I didn’t feel so badly about letting it go after all:

I’ve written about these transitional models, before – after the metal crown top models of the late 1920s, but before the faceted upper bushing and “diamond cut” caps introduced in 1937.  The imprint is on the round upper bushing:

What makes this one special is its size: it’s only the second I’ve found in the thin, short model.  When I wrote about the last one, I’d commented that the regular fat models were rare, the thin models were rarer and the thin short models were “holy cow” (see https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2015/03/rarer-than-rarer-than-rare.html).  But this one is a bit more than just holy cow:

It’s a prettier holy cow.   No plain old black bakelite barrel this time!  Although that clipless black one still has a special place in my collection, the new one really adds to the family picture of this series: