HELLO
i notice these three letters on the nibs and caps of watermans .what do they stand for?
keith

FDW = Frank D. Waterman - he was Lewis Waterman's nephew and took over the company when the elder Waterman died in 1901. In many ways he is the one responsible for making Waterman into one of the big 4 - Lewis started the company and grew it to be a reasonable player in the fountain pen market, but left behind a company with 27 employees. The younger Waterman built that to a company of more than 1000 employees worldwide.

John

THANKS !!!!

KEITH

My understanding is that when the initials appear on gold fittings, they are (part of) the hallmark. I don't have any so marked items with me at the moment, but IIRC there are other assay-type marks alongside the FDW.

These initials don't appear on all gold fittings, and only occasionally on nibs. I suspect that the country of manufacture must have something to do with the use of these hallmarks. I see the FDW much more frequently on Canadian-made pens than US made ones.

If anyone knows more about how/when/why the FDW hallmark was used, I'd love to hear.

Best regards, greg

I see two people have given you the answer that I have read previously.

Hi,
I am a new member, hence the belated reply. I have read that FDW appears only in conjunction with an English hallmark on the pen itself, although it does appear also on the nib, mostly Canadian as Greg says.
But another question. How does one identify Frank D. Waterman's own collection, or are they exclusively in Watermans archives?
Thanks, Tony