I received a question today from a pen friend in Romania about a pen and pencil set that was offered on an eBay auction that I was fortunate to win today. The question was "is the pen and pencil I won really a set, because the pencil has a spoon clip and the pen has a roller ball clip. After responding I thought the forum might find the topic interesting, too.

Here is the pen and pencil set in question:


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Here is the answer I sent in reply:

Thanks for your question, Adrian.

Well,actually the pen and pencil are a set. The Pen had a roller clip and the pencil had a spoon clip. I can not say that this very pen and pencil were always together from the day they left the factory or originally sold in one box. But the pen and the pencil were intended to be paired. here is a link to a picture I took tonight of an original January 1, 1927 advertisement that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. The pen and pencil in question are the ones in the middle of the ad. This pen and pencil with the 2 rings on pencil barrel and 2 gold rings on the pen cap were made in the last half of 1926 and into 1927 and '28. Pens with a wide gold band were made from 1924 1/2 through 1926 1/2. The matching pencil in that era had no barrel bands.



I hope this sheds some light on the pairing of pens and pencils. Just because the clips are not the same does not mean they were not paired together. On the other hand, the All Metal pens and pencils did share the same "spoon" clip and the post 1927/8 pens and pencils shared the same roller ball clips, but the Hard Rubber pens and pencils between 1925 and 1928 had roller balls on the pen and spoons on the pencil.

You beat me on that auction, Wahlnut: my wife sends her thanks!

They are a lovely set - congratulations: and at least I know they are going to a good home!

Darren.