Hi everyone. I am new to the FPN and relatively new to pen collecting although I have several Esterbrooks which I am very pleased with. Have several pastel colors including the lilac and peach. Does anyone know if Esterbrook pens came with a gold nib? Understand it may have been sold with the dollar pen and advertised as a gold fan nib. Any information appreciated.

Jim

The Phaeton, Relief, probably a couple of others. Unfortunately, Brian Anderson's (he's one of the moderators here) www.esterbrook.net doesn't address this directly.

If it's a J, LJ, SJ, CH or H or other pen which takes Re-New points then a gold nib isn't from Esterbrook AIUI, except that the ``Sunburst'' 3xxx designs were available in gold-plated 8xxx versions --- more information here: http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref_info/estynibs.htm --- which sounds like what you have, which is a wonderfully nice thing to have! Congratulations!

(And the 3xxx non-sunburst nibs made in Britain were gold-toned as well)

However, one often finds Esterbrooks w/ Osmiroid nibs which fit and most of those are gold-toned.

Also, Fred Krinkle of the Fountain Pen Hospital in Los Angeles fitted gold Pentalic nibs into collars which could then be used in Esterbrooks. I've seen two of these come up on EBay and both were in pastel-coloured CH pens, so this might be what you have if it's not a sunburst nib. (Which is still really nice.)

And of course there's always the case of a Frankenpen.

William

I don't know about all the 8xxx nibs, but I know that the 8440 at least has gold plating. Here are some pictures: http://www.vintagepens.com/morepics.asp?id=6390&pics=2

These are supposedly very rare, but I did see a pen show up on eBay once that had one.

--Stephen

These photos are from an old FPN post of mine. This is a "late" (est. 1960s) UK made Esterbrook.
Renew nib 14CT - screws in and out as regular renew points do.
Someone said that this is the last version of the Esterbrook Reliefs.
I believe that this is the only gold renew point - but I would be happy to be corrected.
There are other gold nibbed Esties. For example the earlier Reliefs (193X-)
had gold nibs but they were traditional "fixed" gold nibs. Similarly the Wirt made eyedropper and
lever-filler Esterbrooks. But for that the true expert is Brian.

wow! I need to find one of those! Is that the line equivalent of a 2314B? I used my 2314M today for the first time and love it. Thanks, Antonios

--Stephen

antoniosz, I remember the photo, but had forgotten that it was a Renew point. Countach!

You really should forward the photo to Richard Binder so he can up-date his page.

William

Thank you one and all for sharing this information with me. I am waiting delivery for a blue, two hole clip pen with the Sunburst tip 3xxx. It is not a relief point but does have Esterbrook markings on the nib. Fair price at $46.00 ?? Will have more info when i receive the pen.

Jim

The 3xxx series nibs can come in a gold plated version and are not of a sunburst design. The imprints run the length of the nib, much like the nib Antonios shows. Many I've seen were of UK origin, but I have seen them with US markings as well. Phaeton nibs were also gold plated and not gold.

Antonios is correct, the renew-point he shows is the only removable 14ct nib made for esterbrook. As he mentions, 14ct nibs in Relief pens made by CS are more prevalent, and then there are the extremely rare eyedropper and self filler 14ct nibs made to fit in Wirt, DeLaRue, and Aikin Lambert made Relief, Gold Relief, and Relief 314 pens. I've seen about 3-4 different variations here, but these are the standard style fixed nibs and are quite rare.

There are also two tone nibs as Rabbit mentions, but also early re-new-points for Relief 66 and Relief 90 models. These are similar to sunburst nibs, but have "Relief Osmiridium Fine (medium, broad, etc.)" on the nib. These are all gold plated, and the plating seems to be quite thin on the Relief two tone nibs, so much so it is quite difficult to find one where you can recognize the plating (Which brings about the question of whether these were all sold as two tone and most have worn off or if there were some two tone, and some just steel. AZ?)

Best-
Brian

Good question. I dont have an answer

I just received my blue two hole clip pen but it did not have a gold plated nib as I recently posted. It does have a 3556 Sunburst design nib marked Esterbrook, osmiridium tip. Made in U.S.A. Overall a very nice, clean functioning Esterbrook added to my collection. Any info as to how rare this sunburst nib might be ? At $46 was this a fair price? appreciate everyone's input.

Jim

For me personally, $46 is fair. Congrats.
I have yet to own a gold plated Sunburst nib so I am a little jealous at this time