7 replies to this topic

[david i]

Hi,

I'm away from my catalogues and having short circuit. I believe Wahl did not call its 1920's blue color, "Lapis" (as Parker did). Was it Sapphire?

 

regards

 

david

 

[Procyon]

In the catalogs, it was Lazulitic Blue.  I think Parker called it Lapis, and Conklin called it Sapphire.

 

 

Edit:   Actually, the 1928 catalog has it as Royal Blue, the 1929 has Lazulitic Blue.

Edited by Procyon, 24 July 2014 - 03:46 PM.

[Wahl]

I have a copy of an italian ad, where they call it Bleu Royal 1928.

 

In the book, Fabulous fountain pens, by Paola Maggi, I can see a group of signatures 1926-1929, and they call it lazulitic.

 

Lambrou, in its book, calls the deco band 1929 sapphire blue.

[Roger W.]

I have a copy of an italian ad, where they call it Bleu Royal 1928.

 

In the book, Fabulous fountain pens, by Paola Maggi, I can see a group of signatures 1926-1929, and they call it lazulitic.

 

Lambrou, in its book, calls the deco band 1929 sapphire blue.

When looking for what a company called a certain color you must limit the evidence to company catalogs unless the book quotes specifically that the company indeed called a certain color by a certain name.  Books are notoriously unreliable on specifics.  In this case the Italian ad can be taken as a primary source and relied upon (though it can be pure license of the ad department and still could be wrong) and while the two book references may be correct they should not be used as they are unlikely to credit the source of their information and thus the primary source that the information is taken from is unknown (a guess) or unaccredited (bad practice).

 

Roger W.

[Wahl]

I am not trying to give any "evidence".

 

As I don´t have access to the company´s catalogues, but do have a few good books on the subject, I stated what I found in them. Just trying to be helpful 

 

However, if that bothers you so much, I will refrain from any comments in the future.

[Roger W.]

I am not trying to give any "evidence".

 

As I don´t have access to the company´s catalogues, but do have a few good books on the subject, I stated what I found in them. Just trying to be helpful 

 

However, if that bothers you so much, I will refrain from any comments in the future.

You may not be aware of how many of the books have huge amounts of errors when it comes to the details.  Mostly the books will give you what dealers have always called a particular item/color "X".  Doesn't matter if the company never used the term "X" in their entire history.  Some facets of books are accurate.  The problem with the books is they by and large don't attribute where they get their information from so you likely have no idea if it is lore or fact.  It doesn't bother me but, I think you should be aware of the limitations of books.  In your answer you attributed the books and that was great so those informed on such matters can judge accordingly.  I don't mean to come down on you hard but, I'm a CPA and the value of evidence is paramount to what I do.  It always strikes me funny how much detail people want online on specifics yet, those that write the books give us scant detail and huge amounts of conjecture.  I will qualify that the information in books on Parker and Waterman is typically much better than the information on Sheaffer and Wahl.

 

Roger W. 

[David Nishimura]

Access to original sources is available online at a number of sites, but the best overall resource is the PCA Reference Library, well worth the cost of PCA membership.

 

David

[Mike Hosea]

Access to original sources is available online at a number of sites, but the best overall resource is the PCA Reference Library, well worth the cost of PCA membership.

 

Just joined.  I put off joining for a long time under the misapprehension that I was not really a "collector".  A more circumspect analysis revealed that I was indeed a "collector" of some sort, just not a very good one.