Does Anyone Know Anything About This Swan Pen?

November 6, 2015

Hello to all FPN members, greetings from Taiwan!

Here in Taiwan we have a fountain pen named SWAN, too.

Its selling price varies from TWD150~250 (≒5~8USD)/each, and has been very popular among students for decades.

These pens can be found in older stationery retailers in piles, without boxes or other wrapping, like this:

http://blog-imgs-84.fc2.com/c/h/i/chingdamosaic/01_2015110616282556b.jpg

White is one of the most common colors, there are also blue, black, red, silver, and some rare editions like macha-green, orange, mint green or wine red.

Lenght: 13.5cm

Uncapped: 12cm

Capped:14.5cm

http://blog-imgs-84.fc2.com/c/h/i/chingdamosaic/02_201511061628282ac.jpg

http://blog-imgs-84.fc2.com/c/h/i/chingdamosaic/03_20151106162829300.jpg

http://blog-imgs-84.fc2.com/c/h/i/chingdamosaic/04_20151106162830527.jpg

On the clip it reads "FLYPEN junior", but I failed to find any useful info on google via this keyword.

A mysterious sticker

http://blog-imgs-84.fc2.com/c/h/i/chingdamosaic/05_20151106162832e79.jpg

It reads "B. S. P SWAN $100"

No idea what the acronym stands for. And the price.....this is said to be a Japanese pen, but with a price using Taiwanese currency?

Anatomy

http://blog-imgs-84.fc2.com/c/h/i/chingdamosaic/06_20151106162918d6b.jpg

A transparent green piston comes along...

Nib

http://blog-imgs-84.fc2.com/c/h/i/chingdamosaic/07_20151106162921e4d.jpg

A Dauer-feder nib. (all these pens are NOS, so the one I got here is already a little rusted....)

http://blog-imgs-84.fc2.com/c/h/i/chingdamosaic/08_20151106162923cf0.jpg

A rather big point here.

Not a welded iridium point, but a piece of moulded steel instead?

http://blog-imgs-84.fc2.com/c/h/i/chingdamosaic/09_201511061629262cd.jpg

How it writes

http://blog-imgs-84.fc2.com/c/h/i/chingdamosaic/10_201511061629268a6.jpg

It writes smoothly, and the ink flow is great. But I have to hold the pen at a certain angle(which, the range much smaller than other fountain pens), or sometimes the ink won't come out.

Also, it gives me a curious impression when writing---it's now quite like using a fountain pen, but a painting spatula instead.

I guess it's because of the nib and the point.

According to the wholesaler and retailers I contacted, all they know about this pen is that it's probably from Japan and the manufacture has long been out of business. And since there actually was a SWAN company in Japan before WWII, they assume that it was the company who made these pens.

However when I try to dig more info about this Japanese SWAN company, I learned that they used to produce higher-end pens, and there is no discussion about this aforementioned pen in Japanese or English.

As I began to suspect that this pen was actually only manufactured and sold in Taiwan, I read in a blog entry about this pen, where a comment mentioned that in Belgium, back in 1980, all students received this pen after they learnt how to write with pencils!

So........I don't know. Just a newbie in the world of fountain pen. Really hope that someone form somewhere else in the world also recognize this pen, and can tell me more about it!

Thanks & cheers!