The set is a 1942-45 Sheaffer Triumph Crest Masterpiece. Solid gold caps. Brown striped barrels with white dote on butt of pen (as expected for metal capped pens from this era), with no price code on barrel. Most pens this era have price codes, though plenty turn up sans code. The basic all plastic Triumph has "1250" for $12.50. The Crest with gold-filled metal cap "1750". Autograph with hallmarked gold 14k capband with plastic cap (black only) iirc "2000", the Crest Masterpiece (this pen) with solid gold cap "5000". The solid gold (cap barrel) Masterpiece did not carry price markings but probably was a $100 item.
Take peek at this sweet set. Consider what might make it a frankenpen/pencil. I'll provide details after the image.
The question is... should the set have black barrels?
Most Sheaffer pens with alloy gold caps are shown with black barrels.
TBOMK, we have no 1942-5 catalogues for Sheaffer to give us a formal sense of then current production. My recollection of the retrospective 1947 Sheaffer Workbook (perhaps our best source of info for 1940's Sheaffer pens) is that Crest Masterpiece is not shown with brown barrels.
So, if the brown barrels are not original pen, what could be there source?
Well, brown "1750" barrels with white dot on butt are known for the gold-filled cap Crest set. Brown "1250" barrels (but with no white dot on blind cap) are known from base pen Triumph. Again, pens are known from all lines that lack price codes, and my pen lacks price codes, so I cannot prove it must be a donor barrel from Crest, or even from Triumph with blind cap swapped or white dot installed after fact.
I note that the set came from (as best I can tell) a non pen person.
What could prove the set original and factory correct? Nothing now it seems, though if the pen had a Crest Masterpiece price code on the brown barrel, that "5000" marking would leave us case closed.
So, we seem to lack absolute proof that 1942-5 Triumph family did not make a brown Crest Masterpiece though context argues against it. We lack proof of alternative donor barrel. Still...
The next issue would be the significance of the franked-up status of the set.
The barrel is the minor portion of value to this set. Black barrels can be fairly easily had (at least at my stage in the hobby), either found without price code or with code imprint likely removable easily with heat to make a "correct" black set.
Later 1945-8 celluoid Autograph (solid gold cap band on plastic cap) pens are known in brown. We lack information to prove (though I'm amenable to counterpoint) that this pen could not have been issued as shown.
At least as likely as full factory original status-- indeed far more likely he case- is an early swap. Perhaps the buyer wanted the $80 set, didn't want black barrels, and was accommodated by the shop owner, pulling barrels from a Crest.
In this case, even if the pen truly is a frankenpen, and as long as the possibility is recognized, I... just... don't... mind.
The value is in the caps. I can "correct" the pen if I must. I like the look of the gold caps on the brown barrels. Sheaffer did use solid gold on brown pens (at least for the 1945-7 Autograph with gold cap band).
I was happy to buy the set knowing all of the above.
regards
david
