A General Distress Call

Well, it's happening again.

As I was dusting things off to start posting some articles here, I went through my metal-capped Waterman pencils to sort out what was what. The result - the previous article posted here the other day - was far too long for a blog article.

It is, however, a perfect start to a project I've been thinking about for a few years.

Right now, I'm pulling together all of the research I've done on Waterman pencils over the last 15 years, including hundreds of advertisements and thousands of images. 

The distress call is that I'm wise enough to know I don't know everything, and that if everybody waited until they knew everything to write a book, nobody would ever write one.

That being said, I'd like this book to be as complete and as accurate as possible. If you harbor pencils that you think should be included or Waterman paper that fills in gaps in the story, please drop me a line by email: jveley@jonathanveley.com. Full credit will be provided for any images contributed to the effort.

Waterman metal-capped pencils

This is an attempt to get things straight in my head. Comments welcome - I decided it was time to figure all of this out after a miraculous "Bader Box" of stuff I bought at the DC Show included these . . .

After I combined these with the ones in my collection and sifted through available catalogs, here's what I think all of these are and when they were made: 

Hundred Year pencils, cataloged in 1943

Cap detail

Stateleigh, as cataloged in 1947 and 1948 (no examples to show you)

Citation, as cataloged in 1947 and 1948

Corinth, as cataloged in 1947 and 1948

Garland, as cataloged in 1947 and maybe 1948

Conquest, as cataloged in 1947 and maybe 1948; a later page in the 1948 catalog shows matching
pens identified only as "Ladies' Pens"

Crusader, as cataloged in 1947 and 1948

14k pencil from "Presentation Sets" in 1947 and 1948; 
1952 price sheet calls these the "Ultima" when sold with a Taperite pen
or the "Ultra" sold with a standard nib pen.
Gold cap only called the "Tiara" in 1952.

Not cataloged in 1947; pens like these were shown in later pages of the 1948 catalog as 
simply "Ladies' Pens," but with a revised clip.

A page near the end of the 1948 catalog shows the example at top as the match for simply a
"Ladies' Pen." At bottom is the one of the pencils from the preceding image. Note the same 
model numbers on the price sticker; clips were apparently revised in late 1947 or 1948

Detail of 1948 clip at top compared to 1947 clip.

The 1948 catalog shows two pencils identified as the "Crusader." An earlier page shows
the same pencil shown earlier, as cataloged in 1947. A later page shows this redesigned version.
Only the larger pencils are shown in 1948; a brown "New Crusader" is shown in a 1950 but
none are shown in the demi size shown here.

This page near the end of the 1948 catalog shows Stateleigh, Garland and Citation pencils
as cataloged in 1947, but with updated clips. The Corinth, however, has been redesigned.

The Corinth, as redesigned for 1948.

This page from a 1951 brochure shows the "Stateleigh," unchanged from 1948, and the Lady Garland
is renamed the "Lady Stateleigh." The Corinth is redesigned again and offered with gold filled caps
as the "Gold Corinth," or simply the "Corinth" with chrome plated caps. The Crusader is shown with silver caps and gold rings, reversed from 1948. Three new models are introduced: the "Lady Corinth" with diamond-shaped patterning, the "Leader," and the "Skywriter 52" fountain pen, described on the following page as the "Ball Pointer" in ballpoint form.

The following page in the 1951 brochure shows pen and pencil sets, but all of the pencils shown
are cap-actuated repeaters, described as "Metermatic" pencils.

"Gold Corinth" and "Corinth" Metermatic pencils, as shown in the 1950 brochure.

Crusader "Metermatic" pencils are frequently found with labels describing them as
"Selfeed" pencils rather than "Metermatic." I haven't found any with silver caps and gold
rings as shown in the 1951 brochure.

"Leader" pencils with a stylized W near the bottom of the caps.

Detail of the Leader's stylized letter W.

Lady Corinth Metermatic or Selfeed pencils as shown in the 1951 brochure.

The pronounced ribbing on the caps of these pencils suggest they were meant to 
accompany the Skywriter 52 or Ball Pointer pens, c. 1951. The top one is a demi-sized
Metermatic/Selfeed repeater; the bottom one is a twist-action pencil with a crude
ringtop soldered onto the top end.

The earliest reference I could find for the "Sapphire" was in late 1952. They were offered in 
matching ballpoint and pencil sets.

Waterman Sapphire pencils, c. 1952-1957.

In 1957, Waterman offered "convertible" pen and pencil sets, also called the "Sapphire."
The pen had an interchangeable ballpoint/liquid lead refill. The pencil was a simple twist-action
affair, perhaps hedging a bet that the liquid lead refills might not work.

Waterman Sapphire pencils to accompany convertible ballpoint/liquid lead pens,
c. 1957.

The Crusader went through one final, unfortunate redesign sometime between 1951 and 1954, when
this incarnation is shown in a 1954 dealer sheet. A demi version was also offered, with a 1948-era clip.

The Waterman C/F (for "cartridge filler") was the American company's last gasp, designed by
Harley Earl of automobile design fame and introduced in late 1953. These remained in production after the company was sold to BIC and was ultimately absorbed by its French subsidiary.

Waterman C/F pencils. These were ordinary twist-action pencils -- the cartridges
were only in the fountain pens they accompanied.

This does not purport to include pencils made in Canada, France, or in the UK.

Tales from (That Other) Junk Box

I mentioned in “Tales From the Junk Box” on October 17 that I had purchased two small junk boxes from Michael Krut at the Detroit show. That earlier article featured Eversharp odds and ends that came from one of those boxes, and I casually noted that the other box contained “random fare.”

Random yes, and nearly all of its contents still reside there until the day comes when I need to scavenge parts . . . there were, however, a few things that merit a sentence or two:

Starting at the top is a pencil marked “Welsharp,” and I think these are best attributed to the Welsh Manufacturing Company, which may have faced objections from Eversharp for the use of that name. I’ve got four of these, all of which feature similar interesting plastics. The example at bottom in this next image is just awful . . . but it doesn’t eat much or take up that much room.

Next is a “Varsity,” rendered in the same script with that distinctive loop-around which was also used on pencils branded “Wilrite.” I’ve found a couple others along these lines over the years:

The other red one is marked “National” in a clip sharing the same design as other brands associated with Joseph Starr, that Chicago rascal best remembered as offering those later Chicago Conklin abominations. Similar clips are found on some pencils marked “Waltham” and if I recall (without plowing through drawers of similar fare) with other names as well. National pencils aren’t anything to write home about either, but they did come in a wide variety of pretty colors – so in it went with the others:

Next up, in black, is difficult to spot at first, since the clip is broken. Pen guys would call it a “Waterman 92 pencil,” which is a bit of a disservice since the pencil had its own designation as Model 93. As is the case with so many models – not just Waterman – black is the most difficult to find, so I’ve kept it as a placeholder until the day comes when a better example takes its place.

The second black pencil is what’s left of a Salz ‘Salrite missing its clip, but there’s two interesting things about it that keep it out of the parts bins for the time being. First is that metal band around where the clip was: while I’ve seen that treatment on a few of the later gold-filled ‘Salrites in rosewood hard rubber, I haven’t seen it on the black hard rubber models with nickel trim. See “Reacquainted with Old Friends” on August 12 and the Lodge-I-Cal in “That Last, Fascinating Reprise” on August 14.

This is a later model, marked with both of the Pencil Products Corporation’s patents issued in 1919 and 1922:

The other thing that is interesting about this one is the barrel, which lacks the typical ‘Salrite imprint but is marked number 114, in the same font as the model numbers imprinted on those sales samples from “One Spectacular Fell Swoop” (August 13).

Then there’s that gray pencil, made from the same celluloid seen on some later Eversharp Bantam pens and pencils with those purple flecks:

I theorize that this might be an unmarked pencil from the Camel Pen Company.

It isn’t an exact match, but the overall lines and similarity of their clips are undeniable.

The last one is newer than the others, marked “Kreisler” on the center band. Although these are newer than I typically go for, they do have a distinctive look and the mechanisms are solid, likely supplied either by Cross or Garland.

And, that jogged my memory to tell you about some things about the Kreisler . . . 

Rehabilitating a Lovely Rulebreaker

I simply had to have this one when it showed up in an online auction recently, even though it broke one of my rules:

This sterling silver pencil has everything going for it . . . everything, that is, but that one thing I always look for: some marking to indicate who made it.

I held out hope, however, that the information stamped on the clip might help me attribute it to a specific maker and bring this wayward pencil into the fold. “Pat. Apr. 19, 1910" it reads:

Finding the patent wasn’t difficult, but it wasn’t very helpful, either. Joseph W. Kessel of New York City applied for patent 955,517 on November 19, 1909.

Kessel’s patent was not assigned to anybody, and it is his one and only appearance in American Writing Instrument Patents 1799-1910. He appears three times in American Writing Instrument Patents Volume 2: 1911-1945, and from those later patents we know his full name was Joseph Warren Kessel. All three of those later patents were for clips, none of them were assigned to a specific maker, and none of them are anything I would associate with any particular manufacturer, either. Kessel is a dead end.

Note that Kessel’s drawings show studs on the back side of the clip rather than protruding through the face as seen on my example. Still, no other clip patents were issued on that date, so I conclude this must be the right patent; perhaps in practice it was easier to have the studs protrude through the face of the clip rather than soldering them to the back side.

Wait a tick . . . that sounds familiar . . . 

My mystery pencil is what I call a leadholder. There’s no means of propelling or retracting a lead; turning the nose one way loosens a clutch to release the lead, and turning the other way tightens the clutch to secure it. Aiken Lambert made similar leadholders, and the Aiken Lambert tree trunk figural shown here is one of the prizes in my collection. Aiken Lambert supplied nibs to L.E. Waterman in the Nineteenth Century, and Aiken Lambert gradually became a captive supplier for Waterman, formally becoming a Waterman subsidiary in 1907.

And . . . Waterman was well known for using that riveted clip on fountain pens and pencils. The clip on my tree trunk has the design carried forward onto the clip, but usually these clips are stamped with a patent date of September 26, 1905 as seen here:

That date refers to William I. Ferris’ patent number 800,141:

But wait a minute . . . Aiken Lambert can’t be right. First, our lovely pencil operates by twisting the nose to release the lead, while Aiken Lambert leadholders are operated by twisting the top. Also, it doesn’t make sense for Aiken Lambert and Waterman to develop the elegant Ferris clip, in use from 1905 through the late 1920s, then put a less elegant – even awkward – Kessel clip into service around 1910.

Whoever made today’s pencil was not Aiken Lambert or Waterman – it must have been some other manufacturer trying to get around the Ferris patent.

There was a well-known manufacturer which was prolific in the art of nose-operated leadholders: Mabie, Todd & Co., which offered “Mabie Magazine” pencils in the early teens. The clips for which Mabie Todd pencils are so well known, however, are not the Kessel clip - they typically sported a clip patented on January 19, 1915. Here are three Mabie Todd “Fyne Poynt” screw drive pencils sporting different variations of the 1915 clip:

As with our sterling silver pencil under examination, the metal work on these is also exquisite:

I had photographed these together to illustrate the different clip variations, but it makes sense to include them in this article since Mabie Magazine pencils also typically used these same clips.

The patent date refers to Charles Mabie’s patent number 1,125,144, applied for on May 20, 1914.

I’ve accumulated dozens of metal Mabie Todd pencils, both Fyne Poynt and Magazines, because they are just too pretty to turn down. They had become so crowded together on the wall o’ pencils that when I picked up another printer’s cabinet last year, one of my first orders of business was to spread out my Mabie Todds so I could better see what was there (and cull a few duplicates from the herd).

As I filed away these three new Fyne Poynts in the newly organized Mabie Todd wing of the museum, I found something . . . 

There it is: apparently before Charles Mabie patented Mabie Todd’s ubiquitous clip, at least some Mabie Magazine pencils sported Joseph Kessel’s weird Ferris-ish clip.

At this point, you might think we now have our mystery pencil pegged: it is a Mabie Magazine pencil, but lacking the typical Mabie Magazine imprint at the nose. That is part of the answer, and I have filed this example with my other Mabie Todd pencils, since I do believe that is who likely manufactured it . . . not to mention that’s the best way for me to remember where I put it.

The more complex question, however, is whether this is an unmarked Mabie Magazine pencil, made by Mabie Todd for its own account, or whether Mabie Todd might have manufactured it for someone else.

I’ll address that as soon as I send Gabriel Goldsmith some money and wait patiently by the mailbox for part of that answer to arrive . . .