A Second Bounce

That hard rubber “Varsity” pencil made by the Moore Pen Company from the other day is what got me thinking about these again. The page I showed from Moore’s 1925 catalog divides black hard rubber pencils into two categories: “Varsity,” which had no trim bands, and “Colonial,” which did:

The Varsity is identified as Model 190 in the longer version with a side clip, or as Model 290 in a short ringtop, and both are shown in the catalog with a wavy chased pattern resembling Waterman’s “Rickrack” pattern. Unlike the metal pencils, though, the 190/290 designation appears to have broadly been applied to all chasing patterns, since the hard rubber pencil I showed earlier had a Model 190 price band but a “Ribbon” (that was what Moore called it, just like Wahl did) engraved pattern:

I do have a couple Model 190 Varsity pencils in the pattern matching what is illustrated in the catalog:

The yellow dot is there to remind me that one recently came in from Jennifer Heath, I believe at the Ohio Show in 2024. I scooped it up because it was cheap, but I decided to keep it because there is a subtle difference between them:

One has “Moore” imprinted on the hard rubber, and the other has it stamped on the metal above . . . and neither one shows any patent dates. My theory – which I don’t want to test because it involves destroying a perfectly good pencil – is that the patent date on both is obscured by the hard rubber overlay. 

That same sort of variation occurs on the ringtop models, too:

I have found these in plain barrels, that rickrack-ish pattern, and in Ribbon - note that the top example has a Model 290 price band, consistent with the catalog. The 1925 patent example at bottom is beyond repair, but since there is no good way to disassemble these to see what’s going on inside, I’ve kept it to show the unusual square piece that drives the mechanism:

In the ringtops, my theory that there’s a patent date hidden under that hard rubber makes even more sense:

In fact, I’m wondering whether the 1922 patent dates were deliberately obscured. Maybe these are 1925 mechanisms inside barrels marked with the 1922 patent date, and Moore decided to cover over the 1922 date already stamped on a stock of barrels rather than throw them out; then after the 1925 patent was issued, that information was added to the hard rubber imprints.

It’s just a theory.

As for the “Colonial” Moore pencils – hard rubber, but with various configurations of trim bands described unimaginatively in the 1925 catalog, Here are the two ringtops in my collection:

Neither of these is exactly what is shown in the catalog. A full-length version of the one with a wide band, is illustrated as Model 140, but with a smooth barrel and described only as a Colonial with a wide band; if Moore was consistent across the Varsity and Colonial lines, an example with that rickrackish chasing would have the same model designation, but in a short ringtop it would be Model 240. The one with two bands is illustrated as Model 262, but with the rickrackish chasing while mine is smooth. It was called – you guessed it – Colonial with 2 bands.

Although the catalog page I’ve been discussing lists only the Varsity and Colonial lines, there were other interesting configurations that I have not yet discussed. That last image was an excerpt from a larger photo, in which these others appear:

The four examples at the top with colored bands were called the “Luxor” on page 19 of the catalog:

Those with green bands were Model 280, Model 281 with a red band, and Model 282 with the blue. The longer versions I don’t have, but their model numbers were 180, 181, and 182.

Last but not least is the one most people know by name: the red hard rubber “Tuscan,” Model 177 in full size with clip, Model 277 in the short ringtop. In that department, I do have a full-sized version, and two ringtops, the second of which came in along with a collection I purchased at the DC show this year. I’ve also managed to turn up a fountain pen, a bit worse for wear but worth including here:

As with other models, there is variation in how long the hard rubber overlay was made; I believe the longer the overlay, the later the pencil. Note here that the shorter overlay here bears the 1922 patent and the longer one has the 1925 patent date.

Note that in all the illustrations from Moore’s 1925 catalog, all of these have overlays which are wider than the gold-filled portions underneath. Nowhere is the 1925 patent example in blue celluloid with white rings shown, because it likely was made after the 1925 catalog was printed:

Unfortunately, stodgy ol’ Moore only illustrated chased hard rubber pens in its newspaper advertisements even through 1927, long after I am assuming production of celluloid-barrel pens and pencils entered production. Here are two examples in jade, which I had photographed to highlight one details in the celluloid series:

Both of these have Liddell’s 1925 patent date on the barrels, and note that like the blue example, the colored material is flush with the metal. In the celluloid series (not really the best name, because there were also plain red hard rubber examples like this), sometimes these have an extra metal section where the celluloid ends:

My theory, in the absence of catalogs later than 1925, is that those with the extra metal section are earlier, a vestigial reminder of the hard rubber pencils that came earlier. 

But again, that is just a theory. This is the point where I expect the peanut gallery to say “Challenge . . . accepted” and prove me right or wrong.