Does Anyone Know "crest" Company?

[Julia161]

Hi, I got by accident a fountain pen from the 70th which I think is Japanese. It has an old JIS symbol on it's nib (thanks to Facebook Fountainpennetwork group guys for help to identify it). But I can't find any other information about this pen model. May be you help? Thanks in advance! Here are the pictures.

[stan]

In my opinion "Crest" is a model, not a manufacturer.

I have seen many many pens from the 1950s and 1960s and not seen a Crest before.

Congratulations! I think you scored a winner.

Incredible inlaid nib. Doesn't matter it is not gold. Just a good looking nib.

Arrow clip is reminiscent of Parker.

 

As a guide.

Whenever you see a pen that is different and stands out from the pack in one or more substantial ways, buy it.

Inlaid nib.

New pen.

Clean gold colored cap.

Script lettering on barrel and nib.

Ask yourself this question: Would it be a good conversation piece or interesting different addition to my cabinet?

[alfredop]

Not only an inlaid, but also a conical nib. Definitely a great looking nib.

Alfredo

[johnsi02]

I have a Crest I picked up off eBay about a year ago. It looks like a cheap copy of a pilot elite. Gold plated steel nib, green barrel, gold cap. I don't have it with or would put up a few pictures.

To be honest, I've never inked it. I didn't pay much attention when I bid on it, and didn't realize it had a green barrel. Now I'm saving it to give to a friend who likes green pens.

But from what I have read elsewhere on here, they were a lower end Japanese company that made imitations of higher end pens. Good users, otherwise not particularly valuable.

So try it out, and post a review for us. Always good to have more info around.

JS

[stan]

"But from what I have read elsewhere on here, they were a lower end Japanese company that made imitations of higher end pens."

 

"I don't have it with or would put up a few pictures." "Now I'm saving it to give to a friend who likes green pens."

 

I performed a search of FPN and could not find anything related to a 'Crest' pen maker.

There is mention of Sheaffer knock-offs but, no Crest, and this pen does not look like a Sheaffer.

You mentioned you located a reference on this site. Can you please provide the link. i cannot find it.

If you were mistaken and the link is to some other site, can you also please provide.

Perhaps, you can do a Google search of images and find it. It could very well still exist in the ether.

 

You also mention you don't have it but, are saving it for a friend. Uhhhh????

Maybe you can locate it and take a few pictures for us. this will be extremely helpful.

 

 

 

Thank you.

[johnsi02]

Sorry about that Stan. I was posting from my smartphone and I get lazy with clarity.

"I don't have it with" as in I don't have it with me at the moment. I am travelling for an extended period of time, and since I don't plan on using this pen (I plan instead on giving it to a friend of mine) I didn't bring it. When I get home (in a few weeks probably) I will dig it out and take a pictures.

I checked eBay to see if the listing is still there, but they have (unfortunately) started purging closed listings after a certain time, and this one is gone. I googled around and couldn't find anything. So the only picture I could find is the thumbnail from my bid confirmation from ebay. It's really small. Sorry.

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/e11000.m43.l1120/7?euid=6dd3e05415d5435492aad0d0dd128714&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2FeBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D111120980262%26ssPageName%3DADME%3AB%3ABCA%3AUS%3A1120&exe=10026&ext=100070&sojTags=exe=exe,ext=ext(I would have a picture here, but FPN keeps telling me "You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community." So a .jpg file is evidently verboten. Or something. You're only missing out on a picture that is 96x72 pixels, so I wouldn't cry about it.)

What little I do know about it I probably learned from here:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/195495-the-crest-fountain-pen-company/

(Copies of the pen that inspired that particular thread are still available on eBay, check it out)

Evidently they made a P51 copy as well.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/162507-crest-pen-parker-knockoff/

The thought that they primarily made imitations of higher end pens was probably my own assumption. The only models I could find were copies of Parkers, a reference to copies of Sheaffer's, and my own copy of...whatever it is. When I bought it I thought it looked like a Pilot Elite, but now that I own a Pilot Elite, I'm not so confident of that. The clip is a copy, but much of the rest isn't.

Anyway, if folks are still interested next month, I'll stick a couple of pics into a post.

JS

Edit: I updated my profile with the pic, so look to the left and you can see the crest fountain pen in all its pixelated glory. At least until I get good photos taken and posted. Then I'll go back to the anonymous silhouette.

Edited June 14, 2014 by johnsi02

[stan]

The links direct to a discussion of the famous copies of Parker 45 and Parker 51, that are very different pens. Photographs no longer exist.

Please post pictures on your return. Nib looks different.

 

Stan

[johnsi02]

I'm home for a few days, so was able to dig out that pen. Sorry about the quality of the photos, I don't normal take pics of my pens, so I don't have a light box or decent camera. The color of the body is off by quite a bit, it's a medium green. But you can see most of the details.

I took a few pictures of it next to my Pilot Elite for size comparison. I also included a picture of the little plastic bag it came it, because you can see the logo fairly clearly. It's the same logo as on the nib. I tried to get a good picture of the imprint, but it was partly covered by the sticker. The font they used on the imprint is in block rather than cursive for some reason. The second line of the imprint is "First Class Pen", third line is "555S".

The rest of the writing on the filler is "To fill, press ribbed bar firmly 4 times" in all caps.

The sticker makes me wonder where the pen was marketed. Not sure what language that is, if someone more knowledgeable wants to help out, that would be great.

http://i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p740/johnsi02/Crest1_zpsddc5c1b1.jpg

http://i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p740/johnsi02/Crest2_zps9a31c387.jpg

http://i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p740/johnsi02/Crest3_zpsc9ee6734.jpg

http://i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p740/johnsi02/Crest5_zpsd9b9c7e7.jpg

http://i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p740/johnsi02/Crest4_zpsbcf54d47.jpg

http://i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p740/johnsi02/Crest7_zps8b6966ad.jpg

http://i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p740/johnsi02/Crest6_zps5bcfb68b.jpg

http://i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p740/johnsi02/Crest9_zps50690afa.jpghttp://i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p740/johnsi02/Crest8a_zps7d854681.jpg

http://i1348.photobucket.com/albums/p740/johnsi02/Crest8b_zps1dcc67fd.jpg

 

There is no indication that I could find of country of origin. I would put build quality low to medium. There are no glaring problems, but it feels light and cheap, and frankly looks cheap.

No idea how it writes. If someone is really curious, I could ink it up and give it a go later this week.

So, I don't know how much this answers the questions of the OP, but it's as much as I know about it.

JS

[Julia161]

Looks like this brand made variety of models Mine wrote very thin.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Julia161

[rutherfordr]

The language on the sticker is Thai -- that might be a clue to where it was manufactured.

[sweilem]

I came across a crest fountain pen, it has Crest - Japan on the cap , i thought first its a parker 45 flighter

[inkstainedruth]

Sorry, not a clue, other than it looks like a knock-off of a Parker 45 (or possibly the lower tier Parker-Eversharp pens that were a similar design but did not have removable nib assemblies).

And I did find an old thread about them but there's not much information other than that they were a Japanese brand: 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Number99]

It's a reference that is likely to be useless.

 The nib has the JIS mark "〄". (Japanese Industrial Standards)

 

 The JIS mark is usually accompanied by a JIS number, and searching for that number seems to yield a great deal of information. (I never did that)

 The JIS number can be omitted, but if omitted, alternative information must be provided separately.

 In the case of nibs, it seems that there are cases where numbers are marked in hidden places.

 If the JIS mark is not displayed illegally, it is supposed to be possible to find out who manufactured it with the JIS number.

 

https://www.jisc.go.jp/app/mark/general/GnrCertificationRecipientConditionList?show

 (It's a Japanese site. It's just a reference link. It doesn't mean ``you can find out if you look it up'' here. I've never done it, so I can't tell you how to do it. I'd like to try it, but I have a product at home that is mostly foreign...)

 

 By the way, Crest Japan pens are not found in searches in Japan.

 A search found two pens on an overseas site.

 Also, when the search region was changed to Southeast Asia, three more pens were hit in the search.

 Most were from Southeast Asian sellers.

 

I'm wondering if JIS certification can be given to products that look like imitations.

 

Note; The JIS mark of the nib is for the nib, and if the pen manufacturer and the nib manufacturer are different, only the nib information is displayed.

 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Number99

[Tefolim]

On 8/21/2022 at 2:54 AM, Number99 said:

It's a reference that is likely to be useless.

 The nib has the JIS mark "〄". (Japanese Industrial Standards)

 

 The JIS mark is usually accompanied by a JIS number, and searching for that number seems to yield a great deal of information. (I never did that)

 The JIS number can be omitted, but if omitted, alternative information must be provided separately.

 In the case of nibs, it seems that there are cases where numbers are marked in hidden places.

 If the JIS mark is not displayed illegally, it is supposed to be possible to find out who manufactured it with the JIS number.

 

https://www.jisc.go.jp/app/mark/general/GnrCertificationRecipientConditionList?show

 (It's a Japanese site. It's just a reference link. It doesn't mean ``you can find out if you look it up'' here. I've never done it, so I can't tell you how to do it. I'd like to try it, but I have a product at home that is mostly foreign...)

 

 By the way, Crest Japan pens are not found in searches in Japan.

 A search found two pens on an overseas site.

 Also, when the search region was changed to Southeast Asia, three more pens were hit in the search.

 Most were from Southeast Asian sellers.

 

I'm wondering if JIS certification can be given to products that look like imitations.

 

Note; The JIS mark of the nib is for the nib, and if the pen manufacturer and the nib manufacturer are different, only the nib information is displayed.

 

On Chinese ad, Crest is a "Result of Technology Cooperation between Japan and Swiss". Crest was exported to Taiwan market.

And at that time, some companies imported components then assembled them to sale. And I read a document, there was "made in w. Germany" fountain pens assembled in Taiwan, in fact,  were exported to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. And the company got the license from the German company.

I am not sure whether it was assembled in Taiwan or not.

[Number99]

On 8/29/2022 at 12:20 PM, Tefolim said:

On Chinese ad, Crest is a "Result of Technology Cooperation between Japan and Swiss". Crest was exported to Taiwan market.

And at that time, some companies imported components then assembled them to sale. And I read a document, there was "made in w. Germany" fountain pens assembled in Taiwan, in fact,  were exported to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. And the company got the license from the German company.

I am not sure whether it was assembled in Taiwan or not.

I read your reply and looked again at the pen filler and sackguard.

 Then I smiled silently.

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Number99

[stan]

Nibs with the JIS mark do not always have the JIS number. Often then number is applied to nibs that are outsourced by small pen makers. It is not required to be applied to nibs. You will NEVER, repeat NEVER, find a number with the JIS logo on a Chinese manufactured pen. 

 

 

[Number99]

It is possible for factories outside of Japan to receive JIS certification.

 And it is possible to affix the JIS mark to JIS-certified products made in that factory.

 In this case, both the factory and the product will receive JIS certification.

 Conversely, if parts are regarded as products, they can be delivered with a JIS mark if they are JIS certified.

 That's how it actually works.

 

 The JIS mark does not indicate whether a product is made in Japan, but only indicates that it is a JIS certified product.

 The JIS number can be omitted if the conditions are met as I said before.

 

 I mentioned that I can find the manufacturer information if the pen has a JIS number.

 It doesn't mention that there must be a JIS number.

 Also, I didn't mention where these pens were made.

 

 

[Tefolim]

Chinese Ad.

順昌貿易行 imported the pens to Taiwan market.

瑞士日本技術合作 Swiss-Japan Technique Cooperation

太空時代 Space Times

最耐用金筆 Most durable fountain pen

筆尖保證20年附呈保證書 20year guaranteed nib with guarnantee

 

[Tefolim]

This ad said it was made in Swiss(瑞士製，制+二 is a folk writting style of 製 in traditional Chinese.).

[Number99]

I long-tapped the ad image to launch Google Lens and see the text in the photo. (My phone is running Android OS version 11.)

 

 Google doesn't translate everything, but Google certainly translates the pen in the ad as MADE IN SWITZERLAND.