Hi everyone!! As some of you may know, I work with antiques and vintage items and I have recently took up the responsibility of the vintage fountain pens that come through. It's not too bad, and quite exciting. But there is one pen I have come across that has me stumped. I have heard a little whisper that it could potentially be an extremely early Mabie Todd (before they were Mabie Todd) but the internet has given me nothing. Black hard rubber with a very unusual half section. Plunger filler. The cap says 'The "JAP" No.2, made in Japan' and the barrel says 'WHS Self Filling Pen Patented'. It has 'WHS' on the 14ct gold nib Anyone here that has any ideas? https://goo.gl/photos/Ghx1BGtzBHCK9dESA https://goo.gl/photos/WTBNnf9Trmrxq2kj6 https://goo.gl/photos/9ejHCe3c3rmtN6dz6 https://goo.gl/photos/6ci2atbyJQsVWUaj8
If it has British connections, the WHS may stand for W H Smith, the stationers, who may have commissioned a cheap line of pens for their railway station kiosks.
Figtree has a very good memory. The pen is made of BCHR (what most pen collectors call 'black chased hard rubber') or to use a more common term - ebonite. A self-filling ebonite pen would date to ca. 1905-1920. A self-filling ebonite pen without a pocket-clip would date to about 1910-ish. So you'd be looking at something AROUND the time of the First World War. That would make this pen approx. 1910. That would be my conclusion, based on collecting antique pens for 10 years. It's not Mabie Todd, then. Are there any other markings on the pen? Any numbers? What else is stamped on the nib? BTW - Don't get excited by the fact that it has a gold nib. Every antique fountain pen has a gold nib. It does nothing to increase the value beyond making it possible to write with. --- --- --- --- I've done a bit of ebay-poking. I think AF is right - WHS = W.H. Smith. The pen is from around 1905, so I wasn't TOO far off on my deductions! And it's made by the English pen company CONWAY STEWART. Here's an identical one online: http://www.ebay.ie/itm/ANTIQUE-CONW...-H-SMITH-SELF-FILLING-PEN-C1906-/381614285829
Amazing!! thats some great info. Glad you were able to find it! It's nice to get an age on things, thats perfect
Glad I could help. Incidentally it's not a filling mechanism I'm familiar with. But in the 1900s-1910s, there was a HUGE rush to try and develop the 'self-filling pen' (previous pens were all filled with eyedroppers) - and loads of weird and quirky inventions came out. This is probably one of them.
It is not by any means necessarily that early. I recently had a similar which was dated 1929 on the original package.
