20 replies to this topic

[David Nishimura]

OK, this is a bit of a tease.



Whaddya think? Anyone have another?

[George]

I'm still waiting for the safety version...

David, what does the lever and the fingernail cutout look like? If I remember correctly, these have the notched cutout under the globe, and not the more circular types found on "earlier" lever fillers.

Regards,
George

[David Nishimura]

The lever is typical of the early PSF pens with the 2-part sprung pressure bar, but postdating the very earliest pens without the notch under the lever end.
Did I never tell you about the so-called safeties?
Guess that's for another post (hint: they aren't really safeties) . . . .

David

[Procyon]

David,

I believe that would be a slip-cap pen rather than a PSF, which would be a screw-on cap. It is not seen very often.

[George]

David,

I believe that would be a slip-cap pen rather than a PSF, which would be a screw-on cap. It is not seen very often.

I think the phrase 'not seen very often' might be an understatement in this case!

Regards,
George

[Procyon]

David,

I believe that would be a slip-cap pen rather than a PSF, which would be a screw-on cap. It is not seen very often.

I think the phrase 'not seen very often' might be an understatement in this case!

Regards,
George

Well, since I have been chastised a few times, on other boards, for using the term "rare", I hesitate to use it. Sort of like a whipped dog. Whimper ... whimper ...whimper....

[David Nishimura]

I don't think anyone has to apologize for applying the "r" word to this!

As a side note, how many other slip-cap lever-fillers have you seen? De La Rue made them. Can't think of any others, offhand.

Edited by David Nishimura, 05 April 2013 - 01:12 PM.

[david i]

I don't think anyone has to apologize for applying the "r" word to this!

As a side note, how many other slip-cap lever-fillers have you seen? De La Rue made them. Can't think of any others, offhand.

Certainly fair. I've handled... many... Watermans, though this era/make is not in my couple core foci. Still, don't think I've ever seen a lever-fill cone-cap Waterman before. Nice to see...

regards

david

[kimsdad]

Would Conklins count?

[David Nishimura]

Crescent-fillers, no -- we're talking slip-cap lever-fillers.

Earlier self-fillers did routinely come in slip-cap configuration, but not lever-fillers.

[Jerry Adair]

David
How about a slip cap button filler? Do they count? I gots one of them.
Jerry

[david i]

David
How about a slip cap button filler? Do they count? I gots one of them.
Jerry

But not a Waterman...

-d

[David Nishimura]

The interesting thing here is that we have two design features (screw-caps and levers) that were adopted very quickly and in close succession. So it's exceptional to find a non-screw-cap lever-filler, of any brand.

This doesn't apply to some other filling systems that hit the market earlier. That's why slip-cap crescent-fillers aren't rare; ditto for slip-cap twist-fillers.

Button-fillers appeared later, but still a bit before lever-fillers arrived in force. So while slip-cap button-fillers are uncommon (and undervalued, in my opinion), they aren't truly rare.

[Jerry Adair]

David


My Parker is obviously pre Duofold and I seem to recall a date of around 1916 for the button filler from Parker. Didn't Waterman introduce the lever filler around the same time. ca 1915/1916?

Jerry

[david i]

David


My Parker is obviously pre Duofold and I seem to recall a date of around 1916 for the button filler from Parker. Didn't Waterman introduce the lever filler around the same time. ca 1915/1916?

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

We might be talking different issues.

You had written...

David
How about a slip cap button filler? Do they count? I gots one of them.
Jerry

My response of "not a Waterman " referenced that while there are slip cap button filling pens out there, I believe none ever appeared under the Waterman label, cited because the early posts about the thread were describing the scarce finding of a Waterman lever-fill slip cap. Indeed, barring a funky non-USA button-filling 1940's-ish celluloid Waterman, I don't know of any vintage button-fill Watermans.

If there is a button fill slip cap Waterman, I'm happy to hear of it.

As for other pens, Parker did, iirc, make slip cap button-fill pens.

best regards

david

[Jerry Adair]

Sorry for the confusion mine is indeed a Parker. I did not intend to intimate that Waterman made a button filler I was only have a little fun because Kims Dad said Conklin when the thread was clearly Waterman
Jerry

[David Nishimura]

My Parker is obviously pre Duofold and I seem to recall a date of around 1916 for the button filler from Parker. Didn't Waterman introduce the lever filler around the same time. ca 1915/1916?

I don't have the exact dates for Parker to hand at the moment, but I can tell you that Waterman appears to have introduced their lever-filler in spring of 1915, and that Parker had had their button-filler on the market for a few years prior to that.

[Jerry Adair]

My Parker is obviously pre Duofold and I seem to recall a date of around 1916 for the button filler from Parker. Didn't Waterman introduce the lever filler around the same time. ca 1915/1916?

I don't have the exact dates for Parker to hand at the moment, but I can tell you that Waterman appears to have introduced their lever-filler in spring of 1915, and that Parker had had their button-filler on the market for a few years prior to that.

David
I did some research when I found the pen as I had never seen a slip cap button filler. Apparently Parker bought the rights to a button filler around 1913 and introduced that design whilst working on an improvement which he patented in 1915 John Davison was listed as the inventor. So it appears that the 2 filling systems arrived on the scene at nearly the same time. So according to what I have learned you are 100% right that the Parker buttonfiller predated the lever filler by about 2 years. My pen also has an unusual nib (at least to me) there is a round hole in the center and it looks somewhat hand engraved.
Jerry

[Roger W.]

David N.

Is your context two inventions used in quick succession by Waterman? Otherwise the screw cap predates the lever by at least eight years (considering Sheaffer didn't manu. until 1912 though patent 1908) - or in this context eight years is quick?

Roger W.

[David Nishimura]

Screw-cap pens were offered at a very early date, but what we are discussing here is when screw-caps displaced slip-caps -- both in the industry as a whole, and within individual penmakers' offerings. And I think you'll find that the general pattern is that screw-caps did become the default design shortly before levers were adopted. Older slip-cap designs often remained in the lineup for years thereafter, but any new models came out in screw-cap form.

Incidentally, though no examples have been found to date, Sheaffer did apparently make some slip-cap lever-fillers in their first run of single-bar pens.

The real turning point appears to have been around 1912-1914. Note also that Conklin made the switch across their entire line at this very time, discontinuing all slip-cap models.