I picked up 28 pens in a live auction the other day and one of them was this really large Edison Red and Black mottled hard rubber lever model from the early 1920s. Are there any Sheaffer collectors with one or two? What do you know about the brand. I'm told they used other company's materials in making their pens including nibs, which didn't always reflect their brand name. What follows are a few pictures of the pen, the first one next to a Senior Sized 1928 Sheaffer Apple Jade Flattop.

The Edison's condition is scarry nice.

PeteWK

PS - note the feed. It's the strangest one I've ever seen!

As this picture will tell, the color is much better than the first picture would suggest.

The nib is a giant #8 full flex but I'm unsure if its original to the pen. I've seen period advertisements of Edison pens with both no-name and their brand name nibs so they may have just assembled to order.

And the feed is just plain strange as you can see.

. . . and the imprint.

Any thoughts or help out there? I'm putting this in this forum because Sheaffer folks know best and there really isn't anywhere to put it. I thought about putting it in the Pen History section but their foot-traffic is terrible. It would die a slow death there.

PeteWK

Pete;

Nice pen - has nothing to do with Sheaffer as far as I know. At least not a sub brand I've ever heard of nor have I heard of maunufacture in VA.

Roger W.

I just got an Aikin Lambert with a similar looking feed.

Ron

Hi Ron. Could you throw up a picture of it?

PeteWK

Edison I don't know, but nice pens I do, and that is a beauty!!

stick feeds like that are an older design than comb feeds although there doesn't seem to be a real cut-off date for everyone abandoning them...I have several pens with similar feeds that write nicely, as long as they don't suffer a rapid temperature change or a strong bump...then they tend to flood

is that pen an eye-dropper filler? if so it ought to keep writing for a week on one filling!

Hi David. Its actually a lever filler. But its so large that its impractical. Of course, that didn't stop me adding it to my collection. But it would stop me from using it.

PeteWK

finally, a use for those #22+ sacs that doesn't involve cutting the end off for use in an Ingersoll "dollar" pen!

I'd use that one myself...

I do indeed have a stash of the 22s but I don't think I'll be cracking this one open for fear that I'd be cracking this one open.

PeteWK

No known connection between Edison and Sheaffer that I'm aware of.

Edison eventually became the Arnold Pen Co, also out of Petersburg, VA. Too bad since Arnolds aren't nearly as nice as Edisons! Last I knew Arnold was still selling pens, but ad specialty type BPs, possibly just marketing them and not actually making them.

There's also a connection between Edison, Arnold and the Southern Pen Co. Can't remember all the convuluted details on this. Too many pen companies intertwined in those early days!

Sam

I don't think Edison became Arnold. What happened is that Remmie LeRoy Arnold was the General Manager of Edison starting in 1915. He allegedly talked Edison into making cheaper quality pens in the later half of the 1920s, but in 1935 he went off on his own to start Arnold. At least that is what Michael Fultz says in this article - The Biggest Penmaker You Never Heard Of...

Not sure what happened to Edison, but I have to say I have never seen a cheap Edison. They are generally well-made pens.

John