Return of the Crowdpleaser

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People love these, and whenever I get the chance to circle back around to them I jump at the chance:

I was looking for something else when I ran across a junk box full of stuff on Etsy, and although the clip was facing away, it’s so freakishly huge on these short models that I knew what it was . . . a Gordon:

These short ones are great, with what might be a telephone dialer on top.  Maybe, maybe not . . . none of the ones I’ve found show any of the kind of wear you’d expect if these little guys were used to dial telephones:

What’s really unusual about the Gordons are the “fanged” clips, designed to keep your pencil in your pocket so you wouldn’t lose it:

Pushing down on the gawky bail at the top of the clip retracts the fangs so that it can be removed without shredding your shirt or suit pocket:

I’ve written about the Gordon here before.  The last time I wrote about them in 2015, I ran down the three patents for the Gordon “fanged” clip (the article is still live, at https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2015/03/always-crowd-pleaser.html).  The first style clip I’ve never found, and the second style found on today’s pencil is the most prevalent.  I’ve got a few full-sized examples too - I think these are on the earlier end of the spectrum:

The top two pieces came from the estate of Edgar Nichols, inventor of the “Tri-Point” line of pencils.  That top thing might be a cigar holder, or maybe a wood pencil holder – it’s an empty cylinder with a top that screws off.  Along with these other three, these all have a different feel to them than ordinary celluloid - bakelite, maybe.

Then there are the regular full sized line, and I’m long overdue to give you an updated family photo:

The third incarnation of the Gordon clip had a tab at the top which pushed in towards the barrel rather than down towards the tip.  I’ve only found one pencil with that clip:

And it has a great imprint for the company, including its Union City, New Jersey address and the company’s telephone number:

Viewed from the side, you can see the principle is the same – only the execution is slightly different:

I mentioned in that last article that in addition to pencils, there are Gordon pens – and I have a few updates on that front, too.  Here’s three Gordon-clipped pens, two of which are combination fountain pens/pencils:

If you guessed that these look like “Banker” third-tier pens, you got one out of three right.  Although all three have the Gordon logo with two animals flanking the letter G at the bottom of the clips, They are marked “Banker,” “Safer,” and “Gordon”:

I’ve picked up a few other Gordon fountain pens since I last wrote about these that are worth showing you, too.

The nibs on these are your ordinary steel generic nib stuff.  Still, I’m loving that green veined plastic, and even more so, I’m loving the sticker on that syringe filler.  Chicago World’s Fair stuff is a real passion of mine:

This third-generation Gordon pen is something I’ve already shown you, but since my photography skills have improved since we last visited the subject, I feel like I owe you something better than what I gave you the last time around:

But the coup de grâce I’m eager to show you was something that turned up at the Baltimore Show.  Seems like some of the best stuff turns up late in the show and usually at the table right next door to me, since I spend more time chatting and less time shopping with my neighbors.  This year, Paul Ketchpaw was next to me, and during a break in the action as we were talking, this little thing caught my eye on his table:

It’s a stylographic pen, a bit outside my normal area of expertise, but the name . . . “Gordon’s Ink Pencil” . . . had me intrigued.  On closer inspection, no question it’s the same Gordon – complete with the logo!