Sunday History Lesson — Moore & Evans

[Richard]

For years, I've been seeing references to Moore & Evans as if the combination of names represented a cooperative venture between Moore of Boston and Evans of Waterloo, Iowa. Today, while I was researching something else entirely, I stumbled across an advertisement showing that this was not the case. Moore & Evans were, in fact, a Chicago-based wholesale jeweler that also sold pens at retail. There do exist some pens branded MOORE & EVANS, but these pens were almost certainly bought from a jobber for resale, as was common practice.

 

The next question is, "Who actually made Moore & Evans pens?" I'm not even close to that answer yet, and I probably won't ever get there — but in the meantime, here is the October 1894 advertisement in question. The pens in this ad were not Moore & Evans' own; they are a brand that was available through other retail channels, including the Sears catalog. In fact, the cut used in this ad was simply modified for use in the Sears catalog.

 

http://www.richardspens.com/images/shared/Moore_Evans.png

Edited February 5, 2012 by Richard

[Pen Is Mightier]

Very interesting!

 

It is always fun to see research on older pen brands, especially when you get to see old print culture.

 

So will this Sunday History Lesson be a recurring series on FPN? I know many of us history buffs on here would be quite thrilled by it.

[Bo Bo Olson]

What I find interesting is it's called a rubber holder...along with being called a fountain pen.

[pmsalty]

$1.50 in 1894 is equivalent to $39.32 today! Still a bargain!

PMS

[Richard]

$1.50 in 1894 is equivalent to $39.32 today! Still a bargain!

Go ahead, just try to buy one of those pens, in new condition, for $39.32.

[butch46]

I realize this is an old thread, but I have one of those Moore & Evans pens and am trying to figure out who made the thing. It is black chased hard rubber with a crescent-style filler and some sort of roller on the end of the gold color clip.

 

The body is chased with a wave-like pattern and is engraved with "Moore & Evans" and beneath that "Chicago".

 

The bottom of the cap has a 16mm wide gold color ring with a floral design and on the side just below the clip is an oval area about 10mm tall x 15mm wide for personal engraving (not engraved on this pen).

 

The crescent is a thin (abt 1.5mm thick), 17mm wide where it exits the body slot, and rises about 5mm above the body. There are no designs or other markings on the crescent which is of a silver colored metal..

 

The cap unscrews 1 1/4 turns revealing gold colored nib.. The name MOORE is vertical with the M an R in block letters, the two O's connected like links on a chain, and the E is very rounded ( like a C with a center line). Then horizontally is the word LIFE, below that MANIFLEX, then 14KT at the bottom. The nib hole is heart shaped.

 

I would think that the unusual clip with the roller on the end might narrow down who made the pen.

 

Also, I didn't know that anyone other then Conklin made crescent fill pens. I thought maybe someone got creative, removed the lever from a lever fill pen, and fabricated a crescent in the place of the lever -- but there is no sign of the little "fingernail cutout" that would have been at the end of a lever.

 

So, what it this wierdo?

 

EuGene