A Better, Simpler Explanation

Even though I’m best known for my work with mechanical pencils, I do buy fountain pens when the occasion calls for it. The occasion called for it when I stopped by Myk Daigle’s table at the Raleigh Show.

This is an Eversharp Skyline fountain pen, but with a cap overlay made of  sterling silver. Sterling caps on Skylines are the second most rare of all . . . even more so than solid gold. 

The only Skylines that are more rare than these are Skylines with platinum caps and barrels, which have long been rumored to exist, but to my knowledge if platinum Skylines were actually made, none are known to have survived. Skylines with sterling silver caps were not cataloged, but the platinum cap and barrel version was – on page 336 of Eversharp: Cornerstone of an Industry, I included a price sheet dated to 1940 which includes a reference to the platinum pen (Model 78P) and – gulp – a platinum pencil (Model 178P) model. The low-resolution image in the book was the best available and was contributed by Jim Mamoulides, who says he found it somewhere back in 2003.

No sterling cap Skyline pencils are known to exist, but I’m happy to settle for an example of the pen – not only for its extreme rarity, but also because the opportunity it provided to examine one in person gave me a little extra information that allows me to address a longstanding mystery about the Skyline. Note that the clip is marked “Wahl” rather than the usual Eversharp marking:

That matches the nib, which is also marked Wahl:

Collectors have debated these Wahl-marked Skylines for decades. On page 349, I included an image of Wahl-clip Skylines in “Modern Stripe” (also referred to by collectors as “Moire”) in Pat Mohan’s collection.

“There is no definitive proof concerning how or why these were made,” I wrote. “The leading theory is that Eversharp, Inc. stamped the Wahl name on a few pens to preserve exclusive rights to use the Wahl name – or to prevent anyone else from using it.”

That statement is correct – I mean, that is the leading theory. I have always thought that leading theory was pure hogwash.

Chapter Fourteen in Eversharp, “End of the Wahl Company,” details the events beginning in 1939 which ultimately ended in the reorganization of The Wahl Company into Eversharp, Inc. under the new leadership of Martin L. Straus. Several unfortunate events befell Wahl in 1939, including the Federal Trade Commission’s ruling that Wahl’s Safety Ink Shut-Off did not work as advertised and renewed litigation initiated by Charles Keeran (inventor of the original Eversharp), and several of Wahl’s directors resigned in December 1939. A new corporation, Eversharp, Inc., was formed in March of 1940, and on May 7, 1940, Wahl’s shareholders voted overwhelmingly to merge the Wahl Company into Eversharp, Inc. 

Now consider the history of the Skyline, outlined here in “The Post that Launched 454 Pages” (August 15, 2025). Martin Straus had retained Industrial Designer Henry Dreyfuss to create the look of these new pens and pencils, and Dreyfuss’ conceptual drawings were dated January, 1940. Dreyfuss’ drawings show unmarked clips, but otherwise they show the Skyline in what would be its finished form.

Dreyfuss also designed the rectangular cartouche containing double-check marks that would be incorporated into the Skyline’s clip. His preliminary design was dated June 6, 1940, and the final drawings were dated July 17, 1940. The Skyline debuted in newspaper advertisements in October, 1940.

The Skyline was essentially ready to move into production while the Wahl Company was on its last legs, while a reorganization into Eversharp, Inc. was in the works but had not yet been voted on by shareholders. My theory, as I wrote the book, was that Wahl-marked Skylines were test marketed during that uncertain time, perhaps as an additional means to influence the votes of uncertain shareholders in favor of a merger.

It’s a good theory, but that isn’t enough by itself to prove the point. “Although Martin Straus and Henry Dreyfuss began work on the Skyline prior to the Wahl reorganization in April 1940, there is no evidence that Wahl introduced the model before the merger,” I admitted on page 349.

Now, with Myk’s example of this sterling-cap Skyline in hand, I believe the clip assembly on this Wahl-marked example provides a little more evidence. Myk’s example has a damaged clip assembly, so he gave me the original assembly in a little baggie – he had fitted it with a typical, Eversharp-marked clip and derby for daily use. Those assemblies have an imprint that reads “Eversharp Skyline”:

The Wahl-marked clip that Myk’s pen originally was fitted with, though, reads only “Wahl.” Note that the tabs securing the clip to the band have broken.

If the leading theory is correct – that Eversharp, Inc. stamped the Wahl name on a few pens just to preserve the new company’s rights to the Wahl name – the would be no need to stamp the Wahl name here. In fact, it would make a lot more sense to stamp the Eversharp name there to make clear who was using the name.

I believe the Wahl name was stamped all over these examples with Wahl-marked clips because they were made before the merger was approved in May, 1940, during test marketing of the new pens done to provide nervous shareholders with some comfort that great things were on the horizon if they voted in favor of the merger.

I put my theory to the test: Pat Mohan was also in attendance at the Raleigh Show, and he lives close enough to the show that he was able to look more closely at all of his Wahl-marked Skylines. Without exception, Pat reported the next day, every example he owns has this same Wahl imprint on the back side.

And when Pat returned to Raleigh bearing that news, he had something else with him . . .