The Tier Straddler

Some collectors like to refer to pen and pencil manufacturers as “first tier,” “second tier,” or “third tier.” Among American manufacturers, some people reserve the first tier label to the “Big Four” of American manufacturers: Parker, Sheaffer, Eversharp, and Waterman. Sometimes, other prominent manufacturers such as Conklin worm their way into that category.

Second tier is generally regarded as referring to high quality, often regional manufacturers. LeBoeuf, Carter, and that sort of thing.

Third tier is a polite way of saying “crap.” “No name” is synonymous, as in no name of significance.

It is an imperfect system. “First tier” manufacturers sometimes made crap, some “third tier” stuff is pretty nice, and some of the one-hit wonders in the writing instrument world defy classification. Tell me, for example, into what tier the General Manufacturing Company’s “Kaligraf” lever filler pencils fit? If your answer is anything other than first tier, why would a $10 Parker Parkette rank more highly?

I digress. I think the whole tier system dates from the early days of the hobby, when the annointed would tell the unwashed that if it isn’t a Waterman overlay, it’s crap (rolling the R like Mike Myers would).

Perhaps that’s the long way around the barn for me to tell you that some Diamond Point pencils are better than others, although the brand doesn’t get as much respect . . . until a few years ago, I think it would have fallen into the third tier. I had a few new additions that warrant showing you how they fit into the taxonomy:

Starting from the top, I’m loving that green and blue marble. It’s a color combination not often found in writing instruments, and this one fits in well with two others in the collection:

The rounded caps are disconcerting; with a flared bell cap, these would be more recognizable. 

The example at far right, with triple bands, appears to be in the same series as the green one from that first image; there are also double banded ones in some striking celluloids, both streamlined perilously close to the shape of a Sheaffer Balance and more stubby and rounded:

Here are other triple and double banded examples along those lines:

I believe the examples in this next image are a bit later; they follow the same form and materials as the previous group, with only a different clip:

The clip was designed and patented by Harry Esterow, who designed several pen and pencil clips, including the famous “PATO” clips (that’s actually PAT’D, as in patented – online sellers frequently misread them). His application for this variation was filed on December 30, 1930 and was granted Design Patent 83,673 on March 17, 1931.

Unfortunately, as Diamond Point switched to jobbed Esterow clips, the company’s tenuous claim to second tier status weakened. The third example in the first image fits in with later Diamond Point pencils – interesting to look at, but not the best quality. 

Note the great plastics and geometric center bands:

Clips on these are all marked “PATD” in tiny letters at the top, and these are also Esterow clips. I didn’t find these exact variations in his patents, but Design Patent 103,813, filed January 21, 1937 and granted on March 30, 1937, is close enough that Esterow could legitimately cry foul if he didn’t supply them:

Our last new addition to the Diamond Point family fits neatly – sort of – into a series I’ve collected since almost the beginning. Here it is at top with similarly feathered birds:

The “fitting neatly” part is the bottom four examples, but since I scrounged up each of the four colors, I found the two examples in slightly different sizes and with slightly different banding. Note that the “PATD” has been dropped from the clips; maybe Esterow’s design patent expired, or maybe he never managed to secure one for this variation:

If you can’t make it good, make it pretty, I suppose. Tiers schmears, these are great to look at.

If these are third tier, I don’t wanna be first.