Mabie Todd Swan Self-Filling Pen

[Lelouch]

Upon closer inspection of the picture of the underside of the nib and feed in the black 48etn auction, I have a sinking feeling that you may be right, Cob. Though the eternal feeds seem to be just large and straightforward ladder feeds, they have a fairly flat slant to their underside. The feed in the auction seemed to have a curved slant, and then be round into the section. Having not been lucky enough to hold a 48, I'm not sure if that is normal or not.

 

As for whether the nib had work on it or not, is certainly a mystery. It does look like it may have undergone some work, but if so then why not try to do something about what looks like a crease down the center? Not having much nib experience under my belt (as far as what is and is not reparable) I don't know the possibilities.

 

And Cob, I must say that (I had not noticed before as I'm mostly on mobile and some pictures don't load) I rather like the pictures/footers at the end of your posts. My background image on Facebook is the Pen of the British empire image from Mabie Todds old advertisements.

[Cob]

Thanks for those pictures - that is clearly a MT NY feed - I have a similar one in my spares box - I call it the "tongue" feed. I suppose I was fooled by the angle in the earlier picture!

 

C.

[Cob]

Upon closer inspection of the picture of the underside of the nib and feed in the black 48etn auction, I have a sinking feeling that you may be right, Cob. Though the eternal feeds seem to be just large and straightforward ladder feeds, they have a fairly flat slant to their underside. The feed in the auction seemed to have a curved slant, and then be round into the section. Having not been lucky enough to hold a 48, I'm not sure if that is normal or not.

 

As for whether the nib had work on it or not, is certainly a mystery. It does look like it may have undergone some work, but if so then why not try to do something about what looks like a crease down the center? Not having much nib experience under my belt (as far as what is and is not reparable) I don't know the possibilities.

 

And Cob, I must say that (I had not noticed before as I'm mostly on mobile and some pictures don't load) I rather like the pictures/footers at the end of your posts. My background image on Facebook is the Pen of the British empire image from Mabie Todds old advertisements.

Thanks for the kind words. The first snap is of the rather different, and perhaps slightly fierce, Swan on a Mabie Todd & Bard eyedropper I have.

 

Best,

C.

[MarcShiman]

This weekend I came into possession of a Mabie Todd Swan Self-Filling Pen - at least that's what the imprint on the side says. It's a bit worn, but it is a little over 5-5/16" capped. The cap and barrel ends are tapered slightly, then flattened. Still, I was taken by the nib - the exposed nib is 1" long and has a "6" on it as well as the company name, "14 CT" and "MADE IN USA". I thought the "CT" and "MADE IN USA" a little curious, but maybe using "KT" wasn't as uniform in US made pens at that time. Can anyone tell me anything about this pen? I've attached a couple pictures. Thanks.Pen.JPG Nib.JPG

 

Fascinating that this topic is revived as I missed it when it was posted, and missed it again when it was transitioned to our group. But here it is, alive again and on the top of our forum, so I won't miss again.

 

This pen is one of the most difficult ones for me to find. Its something like a 1932 or 33 pen, post-Eternal. The nibs on these are NOT eternal nibs, and can be outrageously flexible. They can also be hard as nails (I have both). In 5 years of searching for these, I've only found a few that still have the step clips (vestiges of the Eternals) and have the 6 size nib. I'd love to see a picture with the clip.

 

I'll just summarize my efforts as "these are extremely hard to find pens". They appear to be of high quality - shortly thereafter, MT New York made a series of pens of disastrously poor quality. This was their last stand, so to speak.

[MarcShiman]

 

 

By the way, for that particular Ebay pen the feed and the nib are incorrect. The nib is from a much earlier MT, and its been damaged and poorly repaired (and retipped). That feed doesn't belong in an Eternal pen. It might be correct to some other point in MT's history, and I certainly don't doubt Cob on this, but I've never seen one before on a NY MT.

Edited February 21, 2016 by MarcShiman

[MarcShiman]

As for whether the nib had work on it or not, is certainly a mystery. It does look like it may have undergone some work, but if so then why not try to do something about what looks like a crease down the center? Not having much nib experience under my belt (as far as what is and is not reparable) I don't know the possibilities.

 

 

 

That's not a crease, that's a rather poor welded crack repair. That nib must have had a huge crack running right up the center from the vent hole. Its a particularly difficult repair, as it runs right through the lettering on the nib. There are very few people who can do that repair well.

[MarcShiman]

Thanks for the kind words. The first snap is of the rather different, and perhaps slightly fierce, Swan on a Mabie Todd & Bard eyedropper I have.

 

Best,

C.

I have a British Eternal 46 in Black Hard Rubber without a cap band (!) that has that same Swan imprint on the clip. I don't think any American Swan ever had that particular bird on it. I wonder if this was a very early iteration of the Eternal pen.