I have seen two references to "end of day pens" in the last month where various plastics left over at the end of the day were put together to form a mosaic. I had not hear of these before. Who made them? When were they made? Where can I find one that writes or can be made to write? I want need one!!!

I'm not the expert, but I believe they were made by all the big pen makers at various times and others, but typically sold under lower-tier brand names, AFAIK. I don't think you'll find them stamped into the barrel with Parker, Waterman, or Wahl, for example.

They're pretty neat, but very, very variable. Some ugly, some downright pop-art, some beautiful. Hard to find with any consistency, IME.

Post a WTB every month or two and watch out here. I've seen 3-4 FS over the past two-three years here or on PenTrace.

Skip

I am not sure the "End of Day" moniker is entirely accurate. Many penmakers, expecially the low-end pens that usually show up with these colors, bought stock from plastics companies like DuPont and made the pens out of the raw celluloid* stock - they did not mix up their own celluloid. I suspect that many of the wild color combinations that get called "end of day" pens were actually short runs of celluloid from the manufacturers, not pens put together from leftovers at the pen company. There were a number of "Indian" patterns that also had wild color schemes and were definitely planned.

I suspect that there may have been celluloid stock that the plastic supplier mixed up with leftovers and odd batches, or experiments, that were then picked up on the cheap by pen makers; or there may have been short-run color combinations that ended up in pens. There may also have been color combinations used in other objects - since celluloid was used in a great many objects in addition to pen - that got picked up by penmakers as well. I suspect that a lot of the low-end penmakers picked up a lot of stock on the cheap ("well, we got this batch here, the color didn't turn out quite like we expected. . .")

On the other hand, we do have actual documented pens that were put together from leftover stock - such as the Parker-made 5th Avenue pens during the early 1930s (sold at Woolworths) and even some use of leftover scraps and parts in the making of later Sheaffers (inner caps and some other internal parts were sometimes made from scrap stock from other parts of the pen-making operations).

I would like to see some documentation that some of the colors we call "end of day" were actually put together from fused scrap material.

But whether they were or not, they often make for some very nice pens.

John

Oh, I thought it was "End of Days" pen.

Of course You Can't Take It With You, but... Which pen would you take to Heaven/Hell? And what ink?

Okay, you asked for it:
If I were to arrive up there then I'd show Peter my Crest, 51 and Dofolds, whereby he'd say, "Well, c'mon in!"
If, OTOH I were to arrive down where all the fire is , I'd pour out all of my ink and/or show the guy my MB 146 so that he'd say, "Flake off, will ya?".

Yikes

I have seen some fabulous end of day pens from Pick and other lesser known makers from around the end of the 1920s to 1930s. For modern fare, the Omas arlechino (sic) is marketed as an intentional design but has much of the appearance of an end of day pen. With the right focus a collector would have a great deal of entertainment and education finding these.

Good luck with yours.