Motor City Highlights

The stories behind how these bits and trinkets find their way to me are sometimes as much fun as exploring the history of the objects themselves. Unfortunately, during the time I was off fooling around writing the Sheaffer and Eversharp books, many of these back stories have faded from my memory.

Janet and I were at the Detroit Pen Show last weekend, and I found a few interesting things to show you. Rather than lining them up at the end of the long queue of stuff I need to photograph, I thought I’d tell you about them now, while my memory is fresh.

Detroit was better attended and busier this year than it has been in recent years. Janet and I had two tables, and on Friday show organizer Dale Penkala stopped by to ask me how business was. Great, I replied – I’m losing all kinds of money. 

Dale looked concerned until I told him it’s a great show when I lose money on Friday: that’s what happens when I am so busy flitting around the room, talking to people, and buying things for my collection that I’m not minding my shop. Saturday, I told him, is when I stay at my table and make all of that money back. Funny . . . I sell so much more when I’m sitting there.

I added all five of these to my collection that Friday.

Michael Krut was responsible for corrupting my pencil collection with those two half-pencil, half-pen combos at the top, but I was a willing co-conspirator. Both have those distinctive, turned-up ball clips that place them squarely in the Edward Todd / William S. Hicks family:

The gold filled example is marked for Edward Todd, both imprinted on the barrel and with a nice number 3 Edward Todd nib:

Although the sterling silver one has no imprint on the barrel, it does have a nib marked “W.S. Hicks Sons,” and I don’t have any reason to attribute it to any other maker:

The example at center came from Jerry Rosenthal, and it might have started life out as another combination pen and pencil before someone had a better idea for it.

Instead of a pencil, this has a really weird metal piece on the end, the parts of which don’t budge. With that  end removed, there’s nothing but an empty space inside:

I’m recalling the “Presso” toilet powder dispenser from “Marveling at Last in Person” (September 10, 2025), but there’s no movement with that end piece to suggest that it dispenses anything. Neither would there be any reason to store leads in a fountain pen. Perhaps it was a pill container or something.

There is a Hicks hallmark on the end of the cap, and the curled end of the clip instead of a ball is unusual but not unprecedented for a Hicks:

The nib, however, is a generic 14k nib. 

What had me puzzled was that there is no lever on the barrel, leaving me to wonder what this thing might be. Unscrewing the section provided that answer: it is a cheap bulb filler.

That pen and pencil set shown at bottom in that first image were also from Michael Krut. I had to give chase, because I’ve only seen one other pencil like this one.

I had a devil of a time finding that gold one - I knew I had taken pictures of it, but since these are so unlike anything else Hicks produced, I ended up shooting it alongside a few other random things I had purchased at the Baltimore Show a few years ago.

From top in this picture are a solid gold Mabie Todd:

A solid gold Hicks:

A vermiel (gold fill over sterling) pencil made by Louis Tamis & Son:

And this one, which was owned by Bob Johnson. It too is vermiel:

I’ll admit I didn’t shoot Bob’s pencil on its own because at the time, I thought it was kind of ugly but I felt compelled to buy it . . . the same sense of obligation I feel whenever I wind up buying a beautifully ugly Parker-Eversharp. I’ve softened on that a bit now, since it looks so nice alongside Michael Krut’s sterling silver set.

Both the pen and pencil bear Hicks hallmarks . . . 

The nib is a correct W.S. Hicks sons nib:

And just like the example I got from Jerry Rosenthal, there’s no lever on this pen, either. It has that same bulb-filler mechanism inside.