10 replies to this topic

[peecee57]

SWAN (MABIE TODD) lever self filler -

'CALLIGRAPH PREFECT' (3130).

Tested,cleaned and working well, includes 'SWAN PEN' box.

 

just missed this on ebay, sold for £8 + postage. Somebody please tell me its a rubbish pen and I didn't miss a bargain!!  

 

Attached Files

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[piscov]

Well, looks like you did...

[pajaro]

For every bargain you miss, there will be another possibility along soon.

 

There are too many to grasp them all.

 

Yet, there are some you lament years afterwards.

[Deb]

It isn't really a rubbish pen but it is a late product and not as good as the earlier pens.  At £8 + postage?  Yes, you missed a bargain but you might do better with, say, a slightly earlier pen to nearly the same spec.  Try for a 3160, that's boring black, but the colour's stable, which is more than I can say for either the grey or the blue that the 3130s had.  Sound pen, excellent nib - quite often flexible to one degree or another.

[Paul M]

I was also surprised at the price.

 

IIRC it had a replacement Phillips nib fitted, but that was probably worth the £8 alone.

[peecee57]

i literally missed bidding by 30 secs, i've been kicking myself since lol, oh well i'll just have to keep looking

[piscov]

Others will come, don´t beat yourself over that! Some you will get, others you will miss...that the life of a fountain pen collector! 

[Hugh]

Really I don't think you missed out that much. There is a line to avoid unless your really addicted and that's the 3170, 3171 and so on , had it been one of those you missed it would have been a bonus !! As such the one you missed runs a distant second but still second so don't feel too bad about it. Deb's suggestion is spot on, personally I'd go for a 32xx model ( the difference being a no.2 nib rather than a no. 1 ) but it'll cost more....such is life.. Overall the 3 series is one I really like and despite some colour problems ( grey especially) seem fairly problem free from a user point. A Phillips nib is a replacement from Phillips in Oxford ( iirc, I'll be corrected if I'm wrong) who handled warranty/repairs and would indicate the pen had at one time an owner (may have) who studied at Oxford, most seem to consider it as a "correct" nib.

 

Regards

Hugh

[Peterg]

Somewhere lurking in the back of my mind, didn't Phillips take over the factory stock when it closed? In which case, as it's a late Swan, it might have been an original nib in the same way that other manufacturers used Summit pen clips after Langs closed.

[Deb]

That's correct, PeterG.  I believe Phillips bought in Swan nib-making machinery in 1958 and they hired a couple of Swan employees to operate them.  In my experience most - though not all - Phillips nibs are rigid, perhaps to withstand the exuberance of students who had broken the nib the pen came with.  Phillips repaired any pens that were brought to them, and their nibs turn up in other pens too.

[Rick Krantz]

reverse sumgai?