More people are offering nib retipping services and prices are coming down, but we have a long way to go before we get back to the rates of 1912! This Aikin Lambert bill tells the story: 30 cents plus postage, five cents cheaper if prepaid with cash or postage stamps. No extra charge for straightening, at least for this job.
Those were the days almost 101 years ago!
ReplyDeleteSo Aiken was clearly willing to retip pens from other makes (in this case Wirt)? That's interesting.
ReplyDeletemy father still was in the ....of my grand father...
ReplyDeleteNot uncommon for pen companies to offer repair services for other brands. In the November 1912 Conklin catalog, for example, on p. 23 we read, "We repair all makes of Fountain Pens and Gold Pens at reasonable prices and solicit your repair work." The Conklin catalog of c. 1917 also states on p. 22, "We repair all makes of fountain pens (except stylographic pens) . . . "
ReplyDeleteParker's 1907 and 1914 catalogs also state, "We repair all makes of fountain pens." There is no mention of repairing other makes in the 1908 Waterman catalog, however, nor in the Parker catalog of 1918. Usual price for nib retipping in this era seems to be consistently 50 cents -- ALC was a bargain even then!