The Toughest Skyline Series

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Pardon me while I whoop and holler about something that doesn’t look all that out of the ordinary:

It is an Eversharp Skyline, in one of those flat, muted colors that is so dark you need strong light (and in the case of photography, to change up the background a bit) to see the colors.  This one is demi-sized, maroon . . . and in about the toughest configuration to find in a Skyline pencil.

I’ve been championing a uniform system for categorizing Skyline variants since before I wrote The Catalogue.  Pens, I reasoned, have interchangeable caps, so if you really want to know what variants were factory Eversharp, you have to look to the pencils since the pencil barrels are a one-piece unit.  The different types I found are laid out on page 72 of The Catalogue and, ten years later, that system has held up very well.

The categories I defined started with Standard (striated) and Presentation (metal top end) models:

Skyline Standard I: striated top section, thin band

Skyline Standard II: striated top section, thick band

Presentation: ribbed gold filled top section

Presentation Vertical: gold filled top, lengthwise lines

Presentation Dart: gold filled top, engine turned design

Here's a closer look at the Presentation models (not shown are the 14k tops, which are plain, and the stainless ones):

Next are the “Solid” series, consisting of a single material for the entire barrel:

From top:

Solid I: single color/material barrel with no bands

Solid II: single color/material barrel, thin center band

Solid III: single color/material barrel, thick center band

Streamliner: simplified clip/derby assembly

Finally, there are the “Press Clip” Skylines, many of which did not have a matching fountain pen.  Clips are stapled into the barrel rather than being part of a separate derby assembly:

Press Clip I: simple clip pressed into barrel, no bands

Press Clip II: simple clip pressed into barrel, single band

Other variations have emerged in the years since The Catalogue was released, but all have been additions to the “Press Clip” family of Skyline variations.  I’ve shown them here as they were discovered: from top, the Press Clip III, IV, V . . . and “holy cow,” which I’ve called VI (for the last of these, see Volume 4, page 140).

This maroon pencil is in the Solid I series - a barrel having all one color and no bands.  The all-stainless Skyline earlier in this volume (page , the one I would drive 500 miles for) was in this same series.  I include the “modern stripe” or “moire” pencils in this same grouping, but they are easier to find than pencils in flat colors.  Once your eyes adjust to the fact that this is a standard Skyline derby assembly but a boring one-piece, bandless barrel, you’ll notice how tough these are to find.  

Most of the other series in my Skyline collection have long since been completed.  Some, like the Solid II and Solid III series, appear only to have been made in limited colors, but I will whoop and holler just as loud if I find one of those off the beaten track as I am today about a plain ol’ maroon one.  As for the Solid I series in plain colors, I’ve found both sizes in black, blue and maroon; I’ve found one regular sized model in green, and none in brown or grey.

Do the “missing” sizes and colors exist?  You tell me.