It's a Sheaffer Desk pen I got from a blurry ebay photograph as the only bidder. No idea what it's worth (would love to know of course), but I knew when I unwrapped it that it was a nice pen.

It's not at all discoloured and has a nice long ebonite taper, yummy. The spot's all there and the lever isn't at all brassed, but unfortunately the imprint's very worn - only just enough left to discern that it's the pre-1927 type. This, and the five-line nib, I think dates it squarely in 1926.

The best bit is the nib - it's a wet, stiff-as-can-be 14kt medium-broad stub, with a line ratio of about 2:1. The stiffness isn't from the alloy, though - it's because the nib's honkin' big! It's dead smooth and a joy to use, and the nib weight makes the whole pen feel like a just handle for swiping gold across a page.

All the profiles of early Sheaffers are for flat top FPs, so I've not seen many of these desk pens online - quite interesting. One more interesting point is the serial number; For posterity, it's "2249545", which is seven digits long rather than the normal 6 - but the first "2" looks less distinct and is slightly misaligned - possibly a factory error.

Nice jade - a few points though. The taper is damaged as it should be much longer and come down to a finer end. The desk base is a Parker and I wouldn't put any stock in it being 1926 as Sheaffer intro'd desk bases in 1925 and ran this particular series until 1935 when they intro'd the "dry-proof". I think the claim of 1927 being a break point on the dating is far from established.

Roger W.






3 different styles of the #10 base Circa 1926-28

Yes, it is a Parker base which I bought to store my two pens. It was sold without the base, as was my other pen. Also, the taper isn't 100%, but the perspective of that picture makes it look a lot worse than it is. In actual fact it's actually missing about 1cm of the end.

The really good bit isn't the desk-nature, but the awesome stub nib!

I don't think the normal serial number is 6 digits as all of the desk pens and all of the pocket pens I've picked up (30+/-) are all 7 digit so that first "2" is probably right.

Oh, I was going to take a stab at value (forgot) I'd say at least $40 probably a bit more. There is slight discoloration but, the color really is quite good. Clean quills (tapers) are hard to come by and though yours is nearly complete I'd take off a bit for that as well. Desk pens really don't command much more than that with rare models hardly ever going for more than $150 (for instance, sharp marine green models, 3 ring jade models, matching taper marine or pearl and black models).

You've got some good color going there- quality jade is something worth keeping, regardless of whether there are small flaws with the other parts of the pen. I think you did quite well picking up that one.

Regardless of market value, getting a nice pen with a great stub nib means that you'll have a tremendous desk pen for your own use. Congratulations!

Thanks, DRP - I know it's not a "treasure" but that's not what makes a pen excellent... or beautiful!

Much of the information in Richard's reference article from which your dating is drawn is incorrect, according to my research, so I advise not relying on it.


7 digits is the length of most Sheaffer Lifetime nib numbers, according to my observations.

--Daniel