The Gift That Keeps On Giving

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One of my favorite pieces that came along with Don Jacoby’s collection was this one:

It’s a WASP pencil (WASP, for those who don’t know, is an acronym for W.A. Sheaffer Pen), and I’ve not seen one in this series in gray with chrome trim - and the trim on this one is much nicer than you’ll usually find:

The imprint on the reverse reads simply “WASP Pen Company, Inc. / Ft. Madison, IA USA”:

A few weeks ago I mentioned Roger Wooten’s excellent article in The Pennant, in which he outlines the history of the Universal Pen Company, organized by Sheaffer as a Delaware Corporation on July 23, 1928.  According to Roger, Universal Pen Company operated under that name, making pens and pencils marked “Univer,” until November 29, 1933, when the company formally changed its name to the “Vacuum-Fil” pen company.  Roger states that the company’s name was changed to The WASP Pen Company on May 29, 1936.

I can narrow down a production date for this pencil even more.  There were two closely related series of these pencils:

The other series is slightly shorter, and it included marbled plastics.  Clips are relocated higher on the barrel, and the stylized W is dropped:

There’s one other difference: the imprint adds the word “Crispline” on all the examples from this later series:

The stylized W clips were earlier; they showed up on the WASP version of the Sheaffer working togs pencil in the “Clipper” line in advertisements from 1939 (these WASP working togs pencils were covered well in Volume 4, page 143).  

Incidentally, the full advertisement is also shown in Volume 4, in the course of discussing “circuit board” WASPs in the article beginning on page 342.  Earlier versions of that same pencil sport the clips used on pencils marked Vacuum-fil, so the transition to that clip likely occurred sometime in 1938 or 1939:

My Crispline pencils, with their non-W clips, accompanied WASP “Addipoint” pens.  Jim Mamoulides did an outstanding writeup on Addipoint pens over at Penhero.com (the direct link is https://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Sheaffer/SheafferWaspAddipoint.htm).  With Jim’s permission, here’s a shot he took of one in brown marble, showing the Addipoint imprint:

So how does the timeline fit together?  I answered that question – along with more than 2,000 other questions – in American Writing Instrument Trademarks 1870-1953.  Both the Addipoint and Crispline trademarks are included in the book.  Sheaffer registered the Addipoint name as number 359,075; in the application for registration, James Low indicated that the WASP Pen Co., Inc. began using the name on February 21, 1938.  Since the application was filed so quickly, on March 7, 1938, we can assume that specific date is spot on:

All of the Addipoint pens I found during my search sported these non-W clips.  Does that mean they were accompanied exclusively by pencils marked “Crispline?”  Not necessarily:

WASP’s application to register the Crispline name was also filed very shortly after the company first claimed to use it: “for fountain pens since March 27, 1940; for pencils since March 25, 1940; and for ensembles consisting of a pen and a pencil, since March 25, 1940.” 

These trademarks narrow the window, but also leave open some questions.  What did Addipoint pens look like between February 21, 1938 and March 25, 1940?  Were they the W-clip pens, and did the pencils that came with them sport the W-clip?  When was the W-clip introduced on models other than the working togs pencils?

Documentation is sparse, and when more information surfaces, with luck the answers will float to the surface.

A Few WASP Variants to Report

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A few of Jerome Lobner’s auctions recently yielded some pencils that filled in gaps in my collection of WASP pencils - that’s WASP as in “W.A. Sheaffer Pen,” a subbrand marketed by the company during the 1930s which included some really interesting features not found on the company’s regular lines.  Here’s two of them:

Let’s start with that silvery glittery one, a material Sheaffer referred to as “Lahn.” 

I’ve got nearly this exact pencil, but with a maddening little detail:

There’s the three colors, brown, green and silver; but note the clips.  The brown and green ones have a little decorative flourish on them, something I’ve nicknamed a “banjo clip” since it looks like strings on a banjo.  My silver example, however, has a plain clip that doens’t match the other two.  That’s been like having a pebble in my shoe.  This new example has a banjo clip:

So now the set exists in perfect harmony:

Not really. Although I should throw my plain clip silver lahn out the window and be done with it, now I’m going to hunt plain-clip examples in brown and green to complete the other set.  If any of these turn up in reverse trim I fear my head might explode.

As for the marine green example, at first glance I breezed on by assuming that I already had one of these, but when I thought about it some more, I remembered that isn’t quite true:

The one I was thinking of has a ball clip marked “Vacuum-Fil” as opposed to a flat clip, and note the different proportions and how the trim band is placed differently.  The green Vacuum-Fil has no imprint, while the black one is marked “WASP / Vacuum-Fil Pen Co. / Ft. Madison, IA USA”:

That’s the same imprint found on my new addition:

The profile of the new addition matches another WASP series perfectly:

Those two “lizard skin” examples appear on page 143 of The Catalogue, while the ebonized pearl example came my way some time later.  Two of them share the same imprint, with the ebonized pearl example being the odd man out:

After these two arrived and I’d already photographed them, I picked this one up too - also from Jerome:

I love that “electric green” color.  When it comes to these, I’ve noted two different styles of clips, on the copper-colored model in the same series (see https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/08/why-i-have-so-damned-many.html):

They come in both a flat clip as well as a more pronounced clip with the letter “W” artfully incorporated at the top:

The “W” clips show up on utility pencils in WASP advertisements from 1939 (see https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2017/01/sharp-in-more-ways-than-one.html), but that was the only year in which I’ve found ads which show the WASP version of Sheaffer’s “working togs” line of utility pencils.  I would suspect that the flat clips are a little bit earler, and since Sheaffer didn’t introduce this incarnation of the working togs pencil until 1938, it could be that the flat clip examples are truly first-year models.

Exciting to think about, but it could also be that Sheaffer just used up old parts however they saw fit, whether before, after or at the same time as the W clips. 

I’m not sure, and maybe it doesn’t matter.  I just kind of like having both versions when I know there’s two of them out there, and I’ve had another one of these, which I acquired from the estate of the late Frank Tedesco:

Sharp In More Ways Than One

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 4; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

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Sheaffer’s WASP subbrand (for those who don’t know, WASP is an acronym for W.A. Sheaffer Pen) appears on pages 142 and 143 of The Catalogue.  One of the more interesting patterns, nicknamed “circuit board” by collectors, appears on page 143.  Here’s an updated (and better quality) family picture of the ones I’ve found:

The proper name for these was the “Clipper,” but Sheaffer applied hat name to several different styles of WASP products, including birdseye (“screaming souls”) pencils, lahn-patterned pencils and more.  Matt McColm has done a great job analyzing the pens and pencils in these series, and he’s noted his observations over at fountainpenboard.com (the best post to look at, which references his other posts, is at http://fountainpenboard.com/forum/index.php?/topic/5768-circuit-board-wasp-clipper-generations/.   I’m not able to add much in the way of observations regarding the pencils themselves.  One quirky thing about these is that the trim bands on the smaller sized pencils are on the lower barrel, while the bands are on the caps on the larger ones:

And, as you can see, the plating quality wasn’t as good as what you’ll find on Sheaffer’s regular line, and WASP pencils are just as prone to the separation that occurs between the upper and lower barrels as their Balance cousins.

Matt divides the series into three “generations.”  The first has a nearly flat top piece, and note how the clips have a little bevel right at the top:

The second has a more pronounced cap with more of a pointed taper, and the sides of the clip are straight:

The third replaces this metal top “jewel” with a black plastic one – very poorly (note how awful the fitment is):

You can debate all day long whether these are generations, or subgenerations, or eras or epochs. Matt identifies three, which I can live with, but I’d note also that within that third group, there was a change in the plastic, from little cubes accented by four scribbly stripes to little cubes separated by wide bands.  Call it a fourth generation or what have you:

The earliest advertisements I’ve found date from 1938, and these show Matt’s “type I” pens and pencils:

Advertisements in 1939 show the same product lineup, augmented by the WASP version of Sheaffer’s “working togs” pencils:

In 1941, Bennett Brothers advertised WASP products.  Note that in this advertisement, type I pens and pencils are advertised alongside type II pens and pencils:

The type II style is most evident in the set shown at the bottom, but you can also see the straight sided clips in the more obliquely displayed sets on the left:

I’m not aware of any catalogs or advertisements showing the black plastic top jeweled models.  It would stand to reason, if in 1941 Sheaffer was advertising type II pencils for the first time, that the plastic jewels would have come later.  The wide band plastic appears to have been added at the very end, since green and brown pens with either plastic have been found with the plastic top end.  Blue, an uncataloged color, I’ve only seen with the wide bands and plastic jewels, suggesting they were at the end of the line, and reducing the metal content in its writing instruments might have been a priority after America entered the Second World War.  Evidence may surface in the future to fill in these blanks.

What I do know is that the WASP plastics were not exclusive to Sheaffer – or even to pens and pencils:

The plastic also occurs on pocket knives made by the Syracuse Knife Company.

Why I Have So Damned Many

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 4; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

I’ve been trying to get better about keeping duplicates out of my collection, so when I upgrade something I’m happy to take what it replaces to the next show and release it back into the wild.

When it’s a duplicate...

Take this, for example:

This WASP Clipper isn’t one you see very often, and to find it on a price card?  With spare leads and erasers?  Yeah, the paper is a little ragged, but when have you ever seen a WASP product card?  Oh, and with a price sticker???

Wow – a dollar price tag, with fifteen cents’ worth of erasers, plus a container of lead – all for 95 cents?

So, I figured, I’d take the one in my collection with me to the Triangle Show, where I would have no trouble finding it a new home.  Except I hadn’t noticed a couple things:

First off, the example I have is missing the eraser, and then there’s the clips . . .

The one which came with a product card has that neat WASP clip with a stylized “W” at the top, while the example I already had is adorned with a flat clip.  So even though the pencils are otherwise identical, including the imprints, I guess I’ll keep both of them.

Speaking of imprints, this next one was an accident.  I fell in love with it when it showed up in an auction:

When it arrived, I was excited to take it to the museum and see how it looked next to the other colors and . . .

Dang.  I already had one, and the color on the one I had was nicer than the new addition.  But, as I always do before I consign something to the sale pile, I took a closer look, and whaddaya know:

One is a Clipper, while the other is a "Thinline."

And then there was this . . . one of these, I don’t remember which, came from the Philadelphia “Snow Bowl” show of 2016, at which I was a little bored, with cash in my pocket, and buying a pencil knowing it was probably a duplicate but picking it up because it was sooooo cheap:

and on closer examination:

One has the earlier "WASP/Vacuum-Fil Pen Co." imprint.