I went to visit my parents this weekend, and used my mother's laptop to visit, of all sites, FPN. As I was sitting there, my eyes wandered to the pen mug atop the desk. Nestled in between Bics and school pencils was none other than the Sheaffer white dot staring back at me!

I took the pen out and realized immediately that it wasn't some cheap knockoff. It has very intricate scrollwork, and the barrel is marked as follows:
1/30 12K R.G.P. CASING [Symbol of a Crown] SHEAFFER U.S.A. The ballpoint tip is extended by pressing in the lower end of the clip, and is retracted by pressing in top of the clip.

My mother says it was given to her by a friend as a gift, and is at least 40 years old. Any ideas as to what this might be?

I have a mechanical pencil that looks like your pen.

I am interested to know the answer too.

purpledog

I've figured out through my searches that the mechanism on this pen is called the reminder clip. Sheaffer designed it so you wouldn't stain your pockets with an open pen (ie: you can't clip the pen to your pocket without first popping the clip back out, and thus retracting the point).

As to the specifics of this particular pen, I'm still in the dark.

I have a gold and black Sheaffer ballpoint from the late 70s/early 80s that has that same kind of clip...similar in function to the Montblanc "lever" clip style...

This definitely looks like a Ladies' model, perhaps from the early to mid 70s.

Anyone have any catalogs or brochures to confirm the name?

It's a Imperial ballpoint in a pattern called "Vintage". I have a ballpoint/pencil set just like that that I inherited from my Mom, and a second set that I picked up on eBay. One set upstairs, one down; for sudoku and crossword puzzles, etc. There were several Imperial series and I don't know which series this pen belongs to. I had thought it was the most recent, the Triumph Imperial, but that was only produced between 1995 and 1998. That doesn't square with your mother's recollection that it is at least 40 years old. And I know my mother had hers for several years and she died in 1996, so that doesn't match up either.

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Bill's right about it being called the Vintage series, which was made in the early 1970's, utilized a clip-actuated advance/retract mechanism and also came in Sterling Silver (our store sold them before I joined it in '78). Pattern is called the "grapevine" series and is deep-etched w/oxidation added to the low points of the pattern to visually bring out the design!

Just sold NOS/unused BP/PCL set w/original stickers on each piece...very striking little set! No FP or RB/FT as far as I can remember.

Best,
DOC

JJBlanche, the pen (along with its Sterling Silver counterpart) is shown in the 1978 Sheaffer catalog pages to be found here in this FPN thread:
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=60275

It's described in the catalog page above as part of the "Vintage" series, ...a renaissance of "old world" charm with delicate tooling."
The prices for the 12 K Gold Filled ballpoint and Sterling Silver model in the 1978 Sheaffer catalog above were $15.00 each.

(edited for grammar only)