Sheaffer Imperial 444Xg - Help Identifying Similar Model

[Dubois]

In the early 1970's (1972/3) I bought a Sheaffer brushed chrome fountain pen, that I recently "rediscovered" in my desk drawer along with a couple of others. One, which I'm sure is a 444xg, I bought for my father in the summer of 1974.

 

When I bought it I thought it was identical to my pen - same chrome, same 14k gold nib, same gold clip, but when I got home, there were a few subtle differences.

 

My unidentified pen is a little slimmer (about 11mm around the base of the cap, against 12mm of the 444xg. Unposted it is a little longer (121mm against 113mm). There is no metal band at the bottom of the head (with the three raised metal bits that hold the cap in place). The nib itself is also different; not the diamond, but a screw in with a little gold band 21mm or so down the barrell from the nib tip.

 

Finally, the converter it came with is a straight metal one, with a small button at the end, quite unlike the one that is in the 444xg. I just bought a new converter, but I don't think it will fit my mystery pen - it's too long - although it is not wasted; it fits the 444XG (and the 444, which is my other Sheaffer.

 

I have looked at the excellent post here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/blog/12/entry-122-identification-help-for-sheaffer-models/ and at the other sites linked in that post, but I just can't see anything that matches.

 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Happy Harry]

Your new pen is actually a 444XG, as this refers to the finish not the model and applied to several very different pens....just to confuse everyone. Yours is most likely a similar style to the Lady Sheaffers ( maybe late model Stylist?) of the era which had some fancy finishes, the plain ones just seem to come along with a sticker that simply said something like " Sheaffer 444XG"

[Dubois]

Ah, many thanks for that. It does indeed look like a Stylist of some description. Certainly the button converter is similar, and the stories of it leaking , and the nib matches some Stylist photos.

 

Sheaffer must have had strange marketing practices, to produce such confusing models.

 

Thanks again.

[jar]

Ah, many thanks for that. It does indeed look like a Stylist of some description. Certainly the button converter is similar, and the stories of it leaking , and the nib matches some Stylist photos.

 

Sheaffer must have had strange marketing practices, to produce such confusing models.

 

Thanks again.

During the era in questions it is not the Sheaffer model that is confusing, just the general understanding of today's public.

 

What you call models are just finish codes as explained above and if someone had asked me what model my Sheaffer was at the time I'd have replied Imperial or Imperial Lifetime or Triumph Imperial.

 

It is the same with other Sheaffer pens. We have folk ask about their 1000 or 750 or 1500 or 500 or 1250 Sheaffer when none of those are model numbers and no one when they were being sold would have called them by those names. They would have been a Balance or Triumph. Those numbers were just MSRP.

 

In reality for most folk when asked what model pen they were using the answer would just be "Sheaffer" or "Parker" or "Waterman" or "Esterbrook".