Hi,

Figure vintage Sheaffer. 1930's. Second tier Sub-Brand. Gorgeous Celluloid. Poor Davey gets hooked.

Really hafta get some sleep, but wanted to post this wee photo-essay-- a suitably self-indulgent and marginally serious account of this Vacumaniac's quest for a rarely seen Sheaffer- the oversized WASP "Screaming Souls in Purgatory" pen- from the 1930's. Too much in way of pics and text to readily make a shrunken form that will fit this page, so I I invite you to peek at the webpage housing this essay



Somehow, i have accumulated some data about and some nice examples of the "Screamer", so figured i'd whip the varied pics into something with perhaps minimal coherence.

So, for some vintage pen eyecandy and some random maundering about an underappreciated beautiful second tier Sheaffer from the 1930's, do take a gander (but hey, no goosing).


Anyone with more info to share about these pens... well, that info would be appreciated. This essay recaps most of the info i'd previously posted about this series, with many additional shots. One sample pic included below. Again, the link above will take you to the photoessay

regards

david

enjoyed the article David. I'm glad to hear of your luck, still looking for an OS myself. I did come into a nm grey standard pencil recently.
Pearce.

Click to view attachment

Here is a WASP from my collection. It is not a screamer though. I was thinking I had another but I can't locate it just now. This one has a screw-in section and a WASP 231 X-FINE white metal nib.

I did not know that Sheaffer also made Vacuum fill pens. I saw one of those last Thursday and almost got it but had to decide between it and a Conklin due to limited funds. I will have to check it out again next time I get a chance.

Hello there David,

Nice essay! I do feel that my hurried snapshot of the "Screamer" set lets down the side a bit, though. I believe I have a twist-fill Screamer in gray; if I can lay my hands on it, I'll try to post a photo.

Regarding the "uncatalogued" status of the twist-fill "Screamer": is it just this pattern that's undocumented in the twist-fill variant? I do seem to recollect seeing scans of catalogs featuring the twist-fillers.

And have you ever run across a brown example? I tend to think that brown might have been available...aligning with the color range of the "Beeswing" pattern and the Addipoint. But I've never seen one, either in the flesh or in a catalog, so maybe not.

Cheers,

Jon

Hi Jon,

Your pic i stole seemed quite nice, and I don't have a set-in-box of my own so there you go.

"Documented" always poses challenges, as I can quote only what I've seen documented but cannot readily control for what others have seen which I have not.

Twist-fill pens are known in a couple general plastic patterns, iirc. The Snakeskin for one. Possilby marbled plastic too (eg. blue/red).

I have a trade catalogue page in color which shows Screamers and Snakeskin side by side. The snakeskin pens hold ink directly in barrel (suggesting twist fill as at least i've never seen a plunger fill snake), whilst the Screamers are shown with opaque barrels only. Both are shown, iirc, in green and gray only. But, this is of course just a single sheet done at a given moment. Who knows what else lurks.

regards
david

Hi David,

I do have a scan of a sell sheet (I think it's a sell sheet - it could be some other kind of trade piece), c. 1935-6, that shows a twist-fill WASP (or WASP Vacuum-Fil; the layout makes it hard to tell). It's a black-and-white piece, and it's devilishly hard to tell what the pen's pattern is. My best guess is that it's one of the "standard" marbled patterns.

And I've got a scan of a Sheaffer repair manual covering a twist-filler resac.

I've got twist-fillers in a few patterns - several marbles, "Screamer" and the black-and-white spiral.

I know the page you describe - the one showing Snakes and Screamers together. But I think you may have mistyped - those Snakes are definitely plungers (I've got a couple). And the twist-fillers don't hold the ink directly in the barrel in any case; they use a sac that's shellacked at both ends (not that I've ever tried to resac one).

This is all very interesting stuff - given my sub-brand affinities, anyway.

Cheers,

Jon

More likely I'm confused than simply I mistyped You have seen plunger-fill Snakes?

david

Hi David,

Yup...did a quick check and turned up what I would call a "standard" - the middle of the three sizes depicted on that Snake/Screamer page - and one of the smallest size as well (the latter missing its blind cap). No O/S, I very much regret to say.

In fact, come to think of it, I'm not sure I've seen the Snake pattern in anything but plunger-fill. (Which may just mean that I need to get out more.)

Cheers,

Jon

lquote]

More likely I'm confused than simply I mistyped You have seen plunger-fill Snakes?

david
[/quote]

Come to think of it, i do have a Snake buried somwhere around here. Will have to dig it up.

d

David,

What are the dimensions of the Wasp oversized pen? Same as an oversized Balance?

Jon

Like the Wasp Clipper in Ebonized Pearl (i teasingly call "King of the WASP") these OS Vacuum and Vacuum-Fil and WASP Vacuum-Fil OS pens essentially are truncated OS Balances. The parts will thread OS Balance. The ends are shortened and i guess double beveled, making for a squat fat pen. I rather like the contour.
regards
david

If this is the pattern you're referring to, this is a plunger filler:

Click to view attachment

--Daniel

Yeppers. I gathered from Jon #1 (we have two this thread) comments that i'd confused the filler systems on the "snakeskin" pens. And i have the ad and have the pen. Sigh. There go my delusions of perfection.

Nice pen btw.

d

That's i WASP Addipoint, iirc. Entry level to WASP-dom. Only (?) Sheaffer series of 1930's to have non-alloy-gold nib, iirc. They can be pretty pens, but the finish is fragile. I tend to think of 'em as equivalent to Parker Parkette from that era. Yours looks to be in nice shape

d

Yes it is an Addipoint. It was the first WASP that caught my eye. I didn't know anything about them except that this one was pretty. I later learned that it was a Sheaffer but still did not know much more about it until I read your essay just now. I have seen some screamers but somehow they haven't appealed to me as much as this one did. The ones I have seen were "in the wild" and weren't cleaned up and as nice looking as the examples you have.

Hi,

The Addipoints featured screw-in nib units ("add-a-point"), and spare units were apparently available in gold alloy - 12K, I assume. I've never actually run across a loose gold Addipoint nib unit or an Addipoint with a gold nib installed.

A few months ago I happened upon a small lot of NOS steel ("Rite-O-Way") Addipoint nib units, including a couple of "flexible stubs" (No. 237). Not surprising, perhaps, that the stub turned out not to have much flex. But I was mildly surprised to discover that its point was simply folded-over steel, without even the illusion of tipping. The other steel Addipoint point styles may also lack tipping, but they're not as unashamedly third-tier-looking as the stub.

Cheers,

Jon