The Case for Cases

Ringtop pens and pencils made by the Carter Ink Company during the 1920s and 1930s are a relatively common sight. Sets housed in celluloid cases, while less common, do show up from time to time. The earlier ones were rectangular:

When these sets are reasonably priced, I’ll bite on them just for the cases, even if I might have the pencil at home. That lower one came as a nice surprise: the Coralite (Carter’s name for this sort of celluloid) was in very good condition:

And, when I checked to see if I had the pencil, I only had half of one. I’ve been looking (whether I remembered it or not) for a complete example to upgrade the one I have missing its cap:

At some point during production, the squared-off corners on the cases were streamlined. I believe this change occurred before Carter streamlined the pens and pencils themselves, since this next case looks too well put together. 

It came from the collection of Terry Johnson, who founded Private Reserve Inks, and it came to me through the Kennedys (Mike and Linda) - I had passed on it when I purchased the pencil part of the Johnson collection, but that gorgeous monogram on the case nagged at me . . . after the big purchase, I messaged Linda and arranged for her to bring it along to the Baltimore show in March.

The “streamlined” cases are sometimes found with the Carter’s name embossed inside the lid: this later set (mid-1930s) also came from Terry Johnson’s collection. The pen and pencil are worse for wear, but to me the case was what was important, anyway:

I have another streamlined case with that same treatment inside the lid. It too contains a later incarnation of the pen:

My favorite Carter’s case, however, is a little bit earlier, dating to 1929 or 1930. It lacks the Carter’s name, but has so much more going for it:

Larry Liebman also likes these – every so often, we get on the phone and have a text fest, sending pictures back and forth while we discuss different brands. When the subject of Carter’s came up a few months ago, he sent me this picture of something along these lines, in lapis celluloid with similar painting:

All of the foregoing is cool show and tell, but other than those last two cases, all of these are probably things with which most collectors are well familiar. And then comes the rest of the story . . . 

In an online discussion in one of the pen groups on Facebook, David Nishimura mentioned that these celluloid cases were supplied to Carter by some unknown third party, and that other companies were also known to have offered them.

Dang it, I thought to myself . . . from now on, I’m going to have to open every stinking one of these cases that I see, and I will not be able to assume any non-Carter contents that happen to reside in them are just later random additions. And then, just a couple of weeks after that discussion, Matt McColm pointed out something in an online auction he thought might interest me:

Opening the case reveals no name inside the lid, but that gold-filled pencil cap is no Carter:

Yes, Virginia, that’s a set made by the Moore Pen Company – the pen is a bit discolored, but what the heck – it has a price sticker.

But that isn’t the reason I clicked “buy it now” quicker than a jackrabbit on a date. It was what is inside the case, not inside the lid like on a Carter’s case but in the case body:

Non-Carter’s cases like these are so rare that most are not even aware that they exists - I took mine to the recent DC Show to share with a couple Moore fanatics I know . . . one had never seen such a thing, and the other had only heard that they exist. It does makes sense that two Boston pen companies would both source celluloid cases from the same supplier, and I supose that likely does narrow down who that supplier might have been to some manufacturer in the Northeast. LeBoeuf, in nearby Springfield, immediately comes to mind.

This is one of those articles I publish in the hopes that it will drag out more information. Actually, all of my articles are published in those hopes, but this time the questions I am trying to answer are very pointed: what other companies offered these, who made them . . .

. . . and David mentioned in that online discussion that there are also cases with three compartments rather than two . . .