A Rejuvinated Swan !

May 5, 2010

Hi,

This Swan pen belonged to my father (God bless his soul !), an Indian Army officer, who never used it but only relied upon his perpetual favourite the Parker 51. He had received the Swan as a prize for cracking a newspaper crossword puzzle in the late 1970s.

I played around with it quite a bit in my childhood eventually destroying its nib and somewhere along the line the sac disintegrated.

Surprisingly, though I never seriously wrote with it anytime in the past it stayed with me as an object of interest all these years. In the last few years I was hoping that I would restore it some day or the other, but never seriously believing my hopes either.

Till the FP mania bit me again. On a visit to Bangalore, in South India, the city where I grew up I visited, on a whim, the pen shop which I used to frequent as a child. The owner, who was a young chap when I last saw him and now a wizened old man, informed me that he could restore the pen without much of an effort. I was hoping to get back to him with the pen duly for the restoration.

Yesterday morning a thought struck me that if it could be done there in Bangalore - then surely it could be checked in Bombay/Mumbai too. Lo & behold when I was looking around some old pen shops in Fort/ Flora Fountain area for a buttoned Sheaffer NN...came across this quaint old shop (since 1945 the board proclaimed !), with an equally quaint & old gentlemanly pen artificer, running it. One look at the pen and he swiftly brought out the exact stock replacement 14 K gold nib (very, very rare),sac and quitely went about his task.

Oh yes...before the Operation Lightning Restore was kicked off I haggled the price of the campaign. Though it was a lil'expensive in the end (equivqlent of $ 33.44) - it was a small price to pay to quell the feeling of guilt for having abused this beauty in my childhood.

And in 30 minutes it was all done. And it writes gloriously !

Let the snaps do the talking from here on...

1. The Swan...now ready for action - Nib F - 14 K Gold - 1K.

2. The major parts in view with the filler lever deployed.

3. Ready to fly - The Glorious Swan !

One delightful observation about this particular pen - every component has an imprint. The nib of course has great many details imprinted in addition to its distinctive breather aperture - "Swan, 1K, 14K Gold, 4C- 585, Mabie Todd & Co. Ltd, Made in India" ';the feeder, the section and the cap have "Swan" stamped on it; the cap clip has the Swan logo imprinted, and the barrel has almost a tome stamped on it - a large logo of thebrand- "(Swan), Registered Trade Mark, "Swan" Pen, Mabie Todd & Co Ltd, Made in India".

After all these years of fooling around with this beauty have now realised its value and am all set to use the pen seriously. Heavens, but now I am equally scared using it as well...

Unfortunately my photographic skills just don't seem to capture the details well enough. I should visit the Pen Photography forum here and hone up my skills.

Anyway end of another fruitful day FP passion-wise !

Rgds,

HG

Edited May 5, 2010 by Guderian

May 5, 2010

Thanks for sharing a unique story of a beautiful pen.

Rick

May 5, 2010

I am glad your Karma or Dharma; is back in balance. I'm not real sure which is which, nor does it really matter. What matters is what was, is, and half forgotten guilt, erased.

That and you have a fine pen. Enjoy it as much as your father enjoyed his P-51. Feed your pen, fine inks served on good papers; and be glad the past can be made good so easy.