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Rare(?) Sheaffer Metal Long Midget Basketweave Pen


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#1 david i

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Posted 10 November 2011 - 08:34 PM

At the Ohio 2011 Pen Show this November, I scored a nice bunch of pens, most for the website, a few to stay with me. Several interesting (catalogued and off-catalogue) Sheaffers turned up. Indeed, a quite rare all Fiesta Red Sheaffer Snorkel (perhaps the "grail" pen for Snorklers) was one key find, a pen perhaps with 3-5 known to the hobby.

Note, FPB has an extensive thread about metal Sheaffers, and perhaps this post ultimately will be melded with that one, though for now I wanted a fresh topic of the pen featured here. For those who wish to see lots of metal Sheaffers...

Sheaffer Metal Pens Galore


I do collect metal flat-top Sheaffers (1910's through perhaps early 1930's), albeit not in completist fashion. I do try to grab special examples when they crop up, and I rarely turn down any metal Sheaffer when it is reasonably priced.

Sheaffer metal pens came in an impressive range of sizes and patterns. Uncommon are any of the midget short very thin metal ring tops. More uncommon by far are the long midget very thin pens (still with tiny #1 size nib) and the oversized examples (i've seen but 2 intact pens, one a short -- but fat-- ring top). As one might guess, some patterns are more scarce than others. Pens are found variably in gold-filled, sterling silver, and solid gold (usually 14k).

So, for the last few pens hows I've been chatting with a nice general antiques dealer who has a good eye for pens and has been setting up at pen shows as far back as I can recall.

He had found a long-midget (Roger, I hope, can clarify the description. I don't feel like hunting catalogue today) gold-filled Sheaffer in an uncommon pattern (a basket weave) that I have found in couple other sizes. First of these I've seen in #1-nib midgety size, noting the caveat that there are so many metal Sheaffer variants out there, that I likely have many other "first I've seen" pens to hunt. But, the long clip midget, in a better pattern, in nice shape... hit my collecting node. After couple shows negotiating in passing, I closed on the pen at Ohio.

When I mentioned this pen in the Ohio Pen Show Pen Haul post, Roger commented that it might be more rare than the Fiesta Snork. We can explore that but the ground there seems to me to be a bit squishy. There is apples and oranges element to such comparisons. Snorks all told are far more common than metal 1920's Sheaffers. Whether one knows of but one or perhaps three of a given pen, leaves statistical error bars of significance. Still, apparently this thing is a good pen.

Here is link to Ohio Pen Show 2011 pen thread Link to Photos/Details: Ohio Pen Show Pen Finds. Monster Haul

Per Roger, "18WC - Green gold filled basket weave number 1. Long number 1 clip pens are seldom found"It is tiny (girth) though as a long midget with clip, it is close to "standard" length.

Here is first view:

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To give some sense of scale I plonked the thing next to a 5" Parker Vacumatic Major, and even this image fails to convey how slender/delicate this thing feels in hand.

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This is, I believe, something of a special shot.

The short midget in the foreground is not uncommon, but shows the size of the pen. The middle pen is a monster OS metal Sheaffer, one of but a couple intact pens of which I know. To me, it has the rarity of the prime subject of this article, but the added cachet of being a big honking' pen. In the background is the long midget in the uncommon basket weave pattern.

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regards

David
David R. Isaacson MD. Website: VACUMANIA.com for quality old pens with full warranty.
Email: isaacson@frontiernet.net

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#2 Roger W.

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Posted 11 November 2011 - 06:53 AM

David;

It's a nice pen. The all metal Sheaffer is in response to Wahl who did all metal first (sometimes I can interrelate different companies - I don't make a habit of it). I collect the whole range of what Sheaffer produced from 1912-1941. People love the big pens but, I've always liked them all the same. These small 1's aren't encountered too often so I've grabbed them when I could.

The basket weave pattern was a little more money but, not as much as the "L" - hand turned though I have found many more of the hand turned than basket weave. In Sheaffer's all metal pens they came in long, midget and pigmy. For a long time I was not aware of a metal pigmy as they are not further documented in the catalog than to state they were available. Long pens are clip pens denoted with a "C" in the code and midgets with an "M". The basket weave was available in a 1 or 2 nib denoted only by a 1 or 2 starting the code as the ring tops were midgets and the clip pens were long and though the clip 1's were shorter than the clip 2's they were all long and not divided into clip "C" and short clip "SC" as much of the rest of the Sheaffer line was. The other rare long clip 1 is the brocaded pattern with the ribbon line pattern to be the one that is "common" in comparison. So the clip versions are not midgets at all.

As far as comparing the 18WC to a fiesta red valiant/statesman in rarity is quite valid however, if we carry the comparison to value you then add the aspect of desirability to the mix and the fiesta red is much more desirable. The basket weave 1 long I would value at $250-300 whereas the fiesta could easily pull $1,000 (I'm sure David would get it to pull more - like retail plus).

Roger W.

#3 david i

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Posted 26 December 2011 - 04:13 AM

To bring this thread into the current status of my collection...

The first of this pattern I found was a standard-ish pen, #2 nib with clip. In fact it really found me, rather than the other way around. It was in a small collection offered to me a few years ago. In the first post in this thread I showed the more significant #1-nib clip pen, a long ultra slender thing, a bit longer than the #2 more plump pen.

On ebay this month I spotted near end of auction the short ringtop #1 ultra-slender pen (were the little metal pens called Pigmy, like the plastic dwarf pens?). Set up a snipe and won the pen at very reasonable cost. So, here for first time (at least in my photo work) are three different sizes of basket weave gold-filled Sheaffer. The new pen (little ring top) is quite clean. I have not yet even wiped it down, so patina is present. Maybe I'll polish it one day. No that's not brassing at bottom.

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regards

David
David R. Isaacson MD. Website: VACUMANIA.com for quality old pens with full warranty.
Email: isaacson@frontiernet.net

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#4 Roger W.

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Posted 26 December 2011 - 07:03 AM

David;

The difference between a pigmy and a number 1 are several. The pigmy is shorter, takes a number 2 nib and has a tabbed pigmy lever.

Roger W.

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Number 1 Basketweave, Metal Pigmy-ribbon lined (1925) and cherry red pigmy (1928)

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The three pigmy's, royal blue, metal and cherry red

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Note the size (legnth), diameter and lever

#5 PatM

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Posted 26 December 2011 - 05:00 PM

David and Roger -

Great thread. Note the three Pygmy size GF pens in the middle of the frame.

Best,
Pat
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#6 Roger W.

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Posted 27 September 2014 - 05:57 AM

I wonder what pigmies are actually available?  Pat shows three and when I get the new one I will have the same three.  They are actually only referred to in the 1925 catalog as there are no pictures of them and no specific code for pigmy (just "C" for clip and "M" for midget) and all models had codes.  So what was the pigmy code - P?

 

Roger W.



#7 david i

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Posted 27 September 2014 - 10:17 AM

I have a pile of ringtop metal Sheaffers. Really I'm overdue to examine them a bit more carefully.

 

-d


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#8 Widget

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Posted 27 September 2014 - 11:51 AM

I've just looked at mine.  Found 1 with a tabbed lever got all excited until I looked more closely it's a CS Dinkie and looks nothing like the Pygmy!!!  Really must start wearing my glasses.



#9 wekiva98

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Posted 28 September 2014 - 03:48 AM

This post sent me back to the pen cabinet, where I found a long No. 1 in the ribbon pattern. (An 18BC in my 1928 catalog.) This quick photo shows it with a No. 1 basketweave ringtop and two larger ribbon-pattern pens for comparison. I can see in my tray (if not exactly in the photo) that the long No. 1 is the same length as the other medium-length pen (a 28BC), which is the size more commonly found. I notice that these No. 1 pens don’t occur in my earlier 1920s catalog, so I’m presuming they appeared and quickly vanished at the end of the decade. (Killed by the Great Depression, perhaps?) Like others who have commented, I’m inclined to go back and take new looks at all the ringtops and small pens I have.

 

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Edited by wekiva98, 28 September 2014 - 03:52 AM.





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