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Killer OS Red Hard Rubber Combo: Supremacy


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#1 david i

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Posted 25 September 2010 - 03:11 AM

The recent pen hoard I grabbed in New York City had quite a number of pens by small manufacturers/labels, some of which I've not before seen.

There are some well recognized , high quality , small make pens, whose value today can trump the pens by the big guys. Others pens are so infrequently seen, that value is quite nebulous. Still, the cocktail of oversized dimension, red hard rubber, high quality and mint/near-mint condition makes for a grand pen, independent of value.

This RHR OS Combo by Supremacy, a Massachusetts-based label, really pops. I might even keep it long term. Sharp "molten" barrel imprint. Lovely patina to nib. Clip seems to be a "VV" (Van Vyverberg?) style clip, though of a particularly heavy/solid sort. Most combos are longer than simple pocket pens, not a surprise given the need to house two modes. This one, though, is quite chunky, too. Bandless. Superb condition.

Don't know if anyone has any info on this company. If so, please share.

In meantime, here is some eye candy. Click the image to expand. Sorry for the dust under the clip

Posted Image

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 Rick Propas

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Posted 25 September 2010 - 03:23 AM

I'm not usually a big fan of combos but this one is just Sweeeet!!!
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#3 Chris Chalmers

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Posted 25 September 2010 - 03:25 AM

The recent pen hoard I grabbed in New York City had quite a number of pens by small manufacturers/labels, some of which I've not before seen.

There are some well recognized , high quality , small make pens, whose value today can trump the pens by the big guys. Others pens are so infrequently seen, that value is quite nebulous. Still, the cocktail of oversized dimension, red hard rubber, high quality and mint/near-mint condition makes for a grand pen, independent of value.

This RHR OS Combo by Supremacy, a Massachusetts-based label, really pops. I might even keep it long term. Sharp "molten" barrel imprint. Lovely patina to nib. Clip seems to be a "VV" (Van Vyverberg?) style clip, though of a particularly heavy/solid sort. Most combos are longer than simple pocket pens, not a surprise given the need to house two modes. This one, though, is quite chunky, too. Bandless. Superb condition.

Don't know if anyone has any info on this company. If so, please share.

In meantime, here is some eye candy. Click the image to expand. Sorry for the dust under the clip

Posted Image

regards

David


Now that can have that space in my pencase that has been waiting so long! :wub: and only because we don't have a 'drool' emoticon!!! :ph34r:
Hugs from the Little Island off the Big Island Down Under!

#4 djohannsen

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Posted 25 September 2010 - 10:08 AM

Wow! One doesn't usually see RHR that looks so great. Congratulations on the find, and thank you for posting the photos.

Clip seems to be a "VV" (Van Vyverberg?) style clip, though of a particularly heavy/solid sort.


The clip is certainly derivative of the Van Valkenburg (VV) clip, but is not it. The VV clip uses a spring to tension the clip, where the design of the clip on your combo uses a solid metal "leaf" (can't come up with exactly the right term here, but the sixth picture shows it quite clearly). The VV clip was patented in 1907, so by the time that this combo was made I assume that the original patent was long expired. IIRC, Van Valkenburg made many clips over a period of some years, selling to various makers. So it's possible that the one on this combo is a VV made clip, of a later style (though it's been my limited experience that when people say "VV clip" they usually have in mind the original spring tensioned version).

#5 John Jenkins

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Posted 26 September 2010 - 03:52 AM

David,

I've nothing on Supremacy, but regardless of its ultimate pedigree, I think we all can agree this is a very tasty pen. Combos in black HR are uncommon and red much less so. The condition just kicks it a bit higher.

Very nice find indeed! If eventually falls ultimately into your "outbox" I would be most interested. B)

John
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#6 david i

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Posted 26 September 2010 - 07:25 AM

Kudos to Larry S. over at Zoss List for forwarding this page ("grabbed" here) from Bruce Speary's excellent http://www.pensandwatches.com

While a great deal of the info posted in this screen shot is observational (The pen after all is marked "Supremacy" and is marked "Medford Mass") both of us at least drew similar conclusion that the thing is of high quality. Bruce's has price sticker. $5 in 1920's not chump change. And- though i could be wrong- Bruce's example looks to be standard girth, not OS, though that might be photo artifact. If he is correct that this is pre-1925, this would be a rather early Combo, indeed.

I go back to my earliest days in the hobby dealing with Bruce, back when he had an email-based regular sales list, before he posted mostly on ebay and on his website. Some nice pens remain in my personal collection from those transactions.

Here's his shot of a Supremacy.

Posted Image


regards

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

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#7 david i

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Posted 26 September 2010 - 07:38 AM

David,

I've nothing on Supremacy, but regardless of its ultimate pedigree, I think we all can agree this is a very tasty pen. Combos in black HR are uncommon and red much less so. The condition just kicks it a bit higher.

Very nice find indeed! If eventually falls ultimately into your "outbox" I would be most interested. B)

John


Hi John,

High praise indeed :)

I'm not racing to sell. As it is, I ave >1000 pens in the pipeline... and no time. It is reassuring (maybe not shocking, though) that despite all the fancy stuff by the big boys we see floating around, a humble small-name item nonetheless can garner attention. Have had maybe 6 or 7 "wanna sell?". VERY nice to know the hobby has many around who cherish pens that are not "BIG 5" or even "Not-so-BIG 10"

regards

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

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#8 Richard

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Posted 27 September 2010 - 01:01 PM

Supremacy was a brand owned R. H. Macy & Company. Yup, Macy's. As in SupreMACY. The brand didn't stop in 1925, it lasted into the celluloid era, as witness this lovely little octagonal ringtop, which is owned by Philip Manet:

Posted Image

The catch was that Macy's did not sell Supremacy pens. As it did with many items, most notably personal care products, it made its own pens branded with the Macy name, and it used surplus manufacturing capacity to produce Supremacy pens for wholesaling to other retailers.

And that exhausts MY knowledge of Supremacy.

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#9 djohannsen

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Posted 27 September 2010 - 07:53 PM

Wow! One doesn't usually see RHR that looks so great. Congratulations on the find, and thank you for posting the photos.



The clip is certainly derivative of the Van Valkenburg (VV) clip, but is not it. <SNIP>


Bad form replying to myself - maybe a symptom of schizophrenia? - but I should correct some of the misinformation that I gave. First, the 1908 VV clip is not tensioned by a coiled spring; examination of my own VV Clip Conklin and the patent (No. 886,095) shows that the tension is maintained by a metal leaf. Second, though I still maintain that when people refer to the VV Clip I think that it is usually the 1908 patent that is meant, I now think that the clip on this pen is indeed a Van Valkenburg clip, though a later design. One should take a look at patent No. 1,316,070, dated Sept. 16, 1919. Also, some quick Googling seems to indicate that Van Valkenburg made numerous fasteners of various sorts and maintained a business in Holyoke, MA. I don't think that it took the Big 4 all that long to produce their own clip designs, so that might explain why we don't recognize these later VV Clips so quicky (i.e., they would have only appeared on smaller make pens).


Dave

#10 PatMorgan

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Posted 27 September 2010 - 11:25 PM

Supremacy was a brand owned R. H. Macy & Company. Yup, Macy's. As in SupreMACY. The brand didn't stop in 1925, it lasted into the celluloid era, as witness this lovely little octagonal ringtop, which is owned by Philip Manet:

Posted Image

The catch was that Macy's did not sell Supremacy pens. As it did with many items, most notably personal care products, it made its own pens branded with the Macy name, and it used surplus manufacturing capacity to produce Supremacy pens for wholesaling to other retailers.

And that exhausts MY knowledge of Supremacy.


Richard,

Living in NYC all of my life, my mom used to shop and get our electronics at Macy's. We had a SupreMacy stereo and SupreMacy TV's while I was growing up along with SupreMacy transistor radio. This was in the 60s and the 70s. Macy's would deliver and set up the items in the home back in those days.

Pat

#11 PatMorgan

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Posted 27 September 2010 - 11:30 PM

Richard,

Living in NYC all of my life, my mom used to shop and get our electronics at Macy's. We had a SupreMacy stereo and SupreMacy TV's while I was growing up along with SupreMacy transistor radio. This was in the 60s and the 70s. Macy's would deliver and set up the items in the home back in those days.

Pat


Just found this link "Googing' SupreMacy products:

http://www.time.com/...,883684,00.html

Time Mag Monday, Aug. 23, 1937

"Macy's insisted that it was all an experiment, a response to continual requests from out-of-town department stores whose patrons supposedly make many a trip to New York to stock up at Macy's. To give them a kind of room service and oblige local shopkeepers Macy's set up a new corporation, Supremacy Products, Inc.. under President Percy Selden Straus's eldest son, Ralph. To a selected store in each trading area Ralph stands ready to sell "Macy's Own" merchandise "price free," i.e., to be marked down or up as local conditions require. Some of Macy's 8,000 branded articles are made to order for the store, others by Macy's own factories in Long Island City."

More discussion of this at the link.

#12 Kirchh

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Posted 28 September 2010 - 03:35 PM

Supremacy was a brand owned R. H. Macy & Company. Yup, Macy's. As in SupreMACY. The brand didn't stop in 1925, it lasted into the celluloid era, as witness this lovely little octagonal ringtop, which is owned by Philip Manet:

Posted Image

The catch was that Macy's did not sell Supremacy pens. As it did with many items, most notably personal care products, it made its own pens branded with the Macy name, and it used surplus manufacturing capacity to produce Supremacy pens for wholesaling to other retailers.

And that exhausts MY knowledge of Supremacy.

I'd be interested in any evidence that at the time this combination pen-pencil was offered (by 1926, as a premium to druggists who sold $25 worth of Piso cannabis-based cough syrup, in one instance), Macy's was making or selling pens under the brand name "Supremacy".

I've not seen any indication that Supremacy Products existed before 1937, and the house brand Macy's used for various products at the time this combo was offered was not "Supremacy", but rather was spelled "SUPRE-MACY".

This appears to me to be the product of a small maker in Medford, MA, as does the ringtop example you show, given the similarity of the lever tab.

--Daniel

#13 viejeaux

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Posted 20 August 2014 - 07:23 PM

I know it's several years later, but the pen in question was made by The Kritikson Bros., et al (Settels or Settles, Chicago Pen Co.) in Chicago in the late 1920's. They are better known for their Security pens, but these were theirs as well, complete with their own patented spring clip. They came in both hard rubber and celluloid.

 

I've seen pens with R. H. Macy imprints and/or Macy nibs, and they look nothing like these. They have been attributed to Diamond Point, because the clip looked like theirs, or Conklin, because the plastic looked like that on some Nozacs. And who was that unnamed Medford MA pen maker supposed to be?

 

Signed, David, by

some fool in Texas


Edited by viejeaux, 20 August 2014 - 07:32 PM.





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