4 replies to this topic

[Dennis B]

Not much new information has come to light about the Kraker Pen Company in the past year or so but today I received an eBay purchase of hard rubber parts that included the reason I bid - two "HALLMARK" imprinted barrels. Now Kansas City is the home of the well known Hallmark greeting card company but that name was not trademarked until later (1928?). I am 99.9% certain these barrels wre made by the Kraker Pen Company in Kansas city, MO.



Patent # 1,164,654 was applied for by George M. Kraker on 12/28/14 and was issued 12/21/15. George Kraker assigned the patent to the Kraker Pen Company. Patent # 1,199,993 was applied for by George M. Kraker on 12/23/1914 and was issued 10/3/16. George Kraker also assigned that patent to the Kraker Pen Company. Patent 1,199,993 covers the lever as shown at the bottom of the above photo. In his testimony in the Sheaffer v. Barrett case, George described this lever and said it was the only lever the Kraker Pen Company was producing.

Pens are known with an imprint that looks to have originally been "HALLMARK" altered to "ALLMAR." These two barrels may never have been part of complete pens as they show little or no wear and swabbing the inside with a damp Q-tip brought out dirt and rust but nothing that looked like ink.

Comments welcome.

Dennis B

[philm]

Dennis,

Interesting find. I seem to remember some back and forth on this over at L&P regarding the HALLMARK and ALLMAR. Do you have any speculation as to why the first and last letters were deleted on those pens?

Phil

[Dennis B]

Phil,

Purely speculation but maybe it was a possible infringement of the Hallmark name as used by Hallmark Jewelers. Here's a newspaper ad from the 12-12-1917 issue of the Chillicothe (MO) Constitution.


As I said, just speculation but in 1917 the Kraker Pen Company was still involved in the ongoing suit with Sheaffer. Since the pens above had to have been made after 10-3-1916 (the date patent 1,199,993 was issued), the timing seems right.

Dennis B

Thanks to Daniel K. who provided this ad to me back in 2006.

[Kirchh]

Another possibility is that after Sheaffer took over the Kraker factory and the contents thereof, they re-branded (by selective buffing) the remaining stock of HALLMARK pens as ALLMAR as a way of distinguishing between the products sold by Kraker and those moved subsequently by Sheaffer.

A couple of years ago, I came across a complete, stickered HALLMARK barrel along with a group of Sheaffer hard rubber parts. The whole group was in a box that had been located in Fort Madison, Iowa -- in the Sheaffer factory.

--Daniel

[Dennis B]

Daniel,

I like your theory better than mine and yours has a more solid basis. If you still have the stickered barrel I'd love to see a pic. Thanks for the input.

Dennis B