Friday, June 26, 2015

An Esterbrook I'd Like To Buy Back


Ever regretted selling a pen? This is one I would love to have back. It's a fully marked English-made Esterbrook Relief button-filler, the size of a streamlined Duofold Senior, basically a rebranded version of a Conway Stewart Duro. I found it in England in the mid-1990s at an outdoor antiques fair, and I've never seen nor heard of another one since. These are the only pictures I have of it, taken back in pre-digital days.


Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Waterman's "Safety Pockets"

Browsing in old fountain pen catalogs, one often runs across items that just don't seem to turn up in real life.  The leather pen carriers sold by Waterman and others provide a good example: they appear regularly in Waterman catalogs from around the turn of the century up through the 'teens, listed as "Safety Pockets" or "Vest and Chatelaine Pockets", yet many advanced collectors have never seen actual surviving examples.

I've owned these two for quite a few years. Both are vest pocket versions, as opposed to the chatelaine versions which have an inverted V-shaped suspension system, allowing the pocket to hang from a woman's belt.