EHCO origins

While our knowledge of the bigger pen companies has advanced considerably over the years, little is known about most of the smaller players. EHCO (Eggens-Hambler) is just one example, and the announcement of the firm's foundation reproduced above nicely documents the company's origins. It provides an exact foundation date -- Feb 1, 1922 -- and details how the two principals were both veteran employees of Waterman, and that they set up their new firm just down the street from their old employer -- EHCO at 180 Broadway, Waterman at 191. The article comes from Office Appliances, March 1922, p. 52.

Livermore in Providence

A. T. Cross may be the best-known early pen manufacturer in Rhode Island, but Livermore was another company making large numbers of stylographic fountain pens back in the early 1880s. The die-cut trade card shown above lists a Boston address, while other flyers place the Stylographic Pen Company in New York City; nonetheless, Livermore appears to have been based in Providence, the other addresses being those of agents and distributors.

 

The bronze Medal of Excellence shown above was awarded in 1879 by the American Institute to Charles W. Livermore "For Stylographic Pens". Pen companies bragged about the prize medals they had won, but surviving examples are rare indeed.

Shortly after beginning working on this post, I ran across the brief notice above. Dating from 1885, it states that Livermore's Providence factory was a four-story brick building at the corner of Arnold and Brook Streets. This really caught my eye, and after a quick look at Google Maps, it seems pretty clear that the factory site can be none other than Brassil Park -- the very same playground that my daughters go to nearly every day from their nearby school!

UPDATE: The most probable site of Livermore's factory appears not to be the park, but immediately across the street to the south. The park was occupied up until 1955 by the Arnold Street Primary School; across the street stood the Hennessey Laundry building -- a four-story brick structure.

UPDATE: ID confirmed as the Laundry Building -- according to the kind reference librarian at the Rhode Island Historical Society, the 1886 and 1887 editions of the Providence City Directory list C. W. Livermore at 44 Arnold St, in the business section under Pen and Pencil Case Manufacturers. The name section of the directory lists Charles W. Livermore, Stylographic Pen Co., at the same address. Livermore died in Warwick in 1889, and it's not clear what happened to his pen business afterwards. In the 1892 directory, 44 Arnold Street was listed as housing a "steam laundry" as well as two other businesses. I will try to get to the Historical Society library next week to see what more I can find, and perhaps to the Providence City Archives as well.

ADDENDUM: Though I did not mention it in the original post, Livermore himself had a rather interesting life. From Walter Eliot Thwing, The Livermore Family in America, 1902, pp. 658-9:

He was the general superintendent of the Spencer Repeating Rifle Works in Boston during the early '60's, perfecting the famous rifle used in the Civil War. He became an ardent worker for the eight-hour league, and for a few years was a member of the common council of Boston from Ward 11. At that time he lived on Shawmut avenue, corner of Lenox street. After the war was over he moved to New York City, and opened the first "dollar store" that became prominent on Broadway. Later on he moved to Metuchen, N.J., and introduced there the artesian drive well, of which many at the present time bear his name.

When the Lehigh Valley railroad passed through that town he sold his property, and after being elected judge of that district, and serving three years, he returned to Providence in 1871, identifying himself again with the manufacture of jewelry, under the firm name of Rathburn, Leonard & Livermore, until the death of both of his partners, when he continued the business alone for a short time. He was the first person publicly to introduce a successful fountain and stylographic pen, and that which bears his name has come to be very extensively used in this and foreign countries. He established agencies for its sale in the principal cities here and in Europe.

What isn't mentioned in this account, though, was Livermore's role while on the Boston City Council in the recovery and preservation of the wreck of the Pilgrim-era ship, the Sparrow Hawk -- a wreck whose traditional identification has recently been confirmed by an in-depth technical study. Contemporary accounts of the excavation and display of the wreck on Boston Common may be found here and here. Livermore eventually donated the Sparrow Hawk to the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth, as described in the December 1888 issue of the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, pp. 216-19 (Livermore describing himself as "much broken in health" and "desirous of finding the most suitable permanent resting-place for it").

Waterman French instruction sheet

In a recent post we made mention of a French-market Waterman 20, chiefly because of its highly unusual feed, but also noteworthy in that this giant appears never to have been officially marketed in France. A neat bit of evidence for the absence of the giants from the French market is shown below; it is the second page of a French instruction sheet that probably dates to right around 1917-18, just after the numbering system for lever-fillers was altered, but early enough that the lever-filler could still be featured as a "new model" -- as it is presented on the opposite side of this sheet.

Although this sheet is too late to bear directly upon the 20 (the 20 is not listed in US Waterman catalogs of 1914 and 1918), it is notable that the repair parts listed (as well as the add-on clips) are all for pens no larger than 6-size, at a time when 8-size pens were standard offerings in the USA. Note, too, the add-on clips, both Clip-Cap style, and in snake form -- both distinctively European, and not to be found in contemporary US catalogs.

51 sacs are now available

Our newly-manufactured sacs for Parker 51 Aerometrics are finally available and may be purchased here. Discount schedule is as follows: 5 sacs for $10; 50 for $75; 100 for $100. For larger quantities, contact us for more information.

New 51 sacs!

Available later this week, transparent sacs for Parker 51 Aerometrics, made in the original material and to original dimensions, complete with internal ribs. This project, along with the replacement stainless steel breather tubes for Parker 51s shown below, actually belongs to our partnership venture, American Art Plastics. Order fulfillment will initially be run through the Vintage Pens site, however, with supplemental listings on eBay as well.

Pricing has not yet been fixed, but will be comparable to that of conventional latex rubber sacs. The original Parker 51 sacs are famed for their decades-long durability, so we've often been asked if these sacs can be used in other pens. They should work fine in hard rubber pens, and pens made of acrylic. Avoid using them in celluloid pens, however, and pens made of cellulose acetate, since the sacs contain plasticizers that can react badly with these materials.

Return of the blog

During the last few months we tried moving our pen blogging over to our Facebook page. While it made our posts more visible to the many people on Facebook, it has also been frustrating. Facebook keeps on changing what it's trying to be (the Timeline, for example, aiming to turn users' pages into personal scrapbooks), but none of the changes seem to be making it any more suitable as a blogging platform. Adding and organizing pictures is a nightmare, there's no way to link from one post back to another, and embedding links of any kind is very restricted. Not to mention all of our friends who have been shut out from commenting because they don't want to sign up for Facebook.

So we will be bringing our main blogging efforts back here, though we will continue to post links back to the blog on our Facebook page for those who want to follow us that way. Most of our recent Facebook posts have already been copied back here, in most cases in expanded form. The rest should make it over in the next several days. "Like" us on Facebook, but the real action will be over here!

An unusual Waterman feed

I posted a picture of this feed on our Facebook page back on May 9th. It was found in an early Waterman 20 made for the French market (in itself exceptional), and to date, no other examples have come to light.

Unlike a normal Waterman spoon feed, this nib has two side channels flanking the central channel, the side channels vented both out the front end and through the feed's bottom by means of two slits.

Another apparently unique feed design related to this one was found on an 8-size Waterman that was clearly being used to test all sorts of experimental features (belatedly described here). That feed is shown above. As I noted in a comment added to the Facebook post:

"The other, 8-sized example was actually quite different, in that it was proportioned more like the early narrow feeds, widened just enough to fit in the two side channels. The side channels were also vented below via slots, but did not extend out the front as here. The feed tail was similar. Note that vents extending from the side channels to the underside of the feed are a standard feature of many production Waterman feeds for their larger pens (8 and 10-size), but in the form of a pair of small round holes." [pictures now added below -- D.]

The most puzzling thing about both of the slit-vent feeds was that they do not appear to correspond with any Waterman patent or patent application. Then Olle Hjort wrote to suggest I take a look at Weidlich's US patent 760,829 of 1904. I think he's on target, and that the two slit-vent feeds are connected to Weidlich's design in some way which remains to be clarified. The Waterman versions do differ in design from the feeds shown in the patent diagrams, but clearly incorporate their key features. Could Waterman have been evaluating the design with an eye to licensing or buying the patent?

When is a Duofold not a Duofold?

They aren't common, but Parker did make Duofolds that didn't bear the Duofold name (we discussed another in our post on the Chicago pen show auction). This example bears the imprint "WISCONSIN LEGISLATURE 1937", so it is likely that it was not sold through normal retail channels.

It came from a parts lot and its condition is, frankly, terrible. No clip, broken barrel, cracks in the cap -- but unusual enough to be worth documenting.

While in most respects it is a standard Duofold Senior Deluxe, it lacks the expected Duofold imprint, instead bearing a generic Parker imprint with a date code indicating production in the first quarter of 1935.
 

The nib is also not a Duofold nib, though it is of the same size. Instead, it is a #7 Lucky Curve -- the usual nib found on these uncommon non-Duofold Duofolds. The feed is a comb feed, of the type factory-fitted to later-production Duofolds.

ADDENDA: In the picture of the barrel imprint above, one can just see a "ghost imprint" at the top of the image -- traces of what appears to have been a standard Duofold imprint, polished away.

Parker continued to provide unusual variants to the Wisconsin Legislature into the 1940s, with examples noted in Facebook posts here and here.

Caw's trade card

The heyday of trade cards was the last couple of decades of the 19th century, so examples advertising fountain pens are rare. This one is a die-cut, but the "Caw's" seems to have been cut off!

For more on die-cut trade cards, see Burt Purmell's article here. Since this card lists the Caw's safety, it must have been printed no earlier than 1896.