Soennecken Need Help With Identifying

[meryko]

Hi,

I have found this Soennecken pen in my grannie's drawer. Any idea what series it could be? It has no numbers, no names apart from the brand name....It has a gold 18 kar nib...with brand name on it too.

Thanks in advance for your help.....

M

[markiv]

Your granny has great taste.

I am assuming there are is no model number inscribed but given its proportions it may be a 116.

You might want to share the length of the pen; perhaps some kind fpn'er would confirm the model.

That nib looks luscious. Nice, simple piston filler pen that's relatively easy to restore.

Congratulations.

[meryko]

Thanks for the prompt reply. The pen is 12 cm long. Unfortunately the nib is bend and it needs mending as well as the filling container- I do not know how to explain.. it leaks from the top where the filling knob is....have to find a pen doctor...))

 

M

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2016 by meryko

[markiv]

Cant tell from the pictures but I hope there is enough silvery tipping material left on the nib. If yes then it would just need to be starightened instead of the expensive retipping.

Consider sending it to FountainBel; he is a very talented pen doctor based in Belgium.

Good luck.

[meryko]

Thanks for the advice

M

[Bo Bo Olson]

Looks like enough tipping material...German nibs were very, very minimal with the super expensive 'iridium'. And expert can fix that bend easy...and I have used FountainBel in Belgium because I'd bought a rolled gold MB 742 whose piston was stuck down, and it had a fragile telescoping piston of the early '50's.

 

He is one of the better ones in the world at re-corking.....The cork is ground to fit, then saturated in boiling paraffin..(the thicker item....not the light mineral oil) & bees wax....Marshal & Oldfield in the best pen repair book says that is best...and the most smooth piston. Even recommending some '50's MB's to be so recorked instead of using a 'new' plastic gasket if the old gasket is done.

After boiling in paraffin and bees wax and placed on the piston shaft, Fountain(a?)Bel smears on silicon grease so it is even smoother than what Marshal & Oldfield recommend.

 

....Pen age and make......

Before 1930, Kaweco was the best nibbed German pen. From 1900-14 they used the US Morton nib, the best in the world. 1914 Kaweco bought machinery and personnel from Morton in April, the American/American German training force arrived. August WW1 started.

Each of the nibs was hand hammered on tiny little hand sized anvils, hand annealed. (Mostly women....worked cheaper, had the hand to eye coordination to do the job well.) To keep the 'iridium' from burning off, the tip of the nib was stuck in a potato.....American technology at it's best. ....Potato soup was the main meal at the canteen I'd guess.

 

Kaweco went broke in 1929/30 because the owner was too involved in the market, not because of lack of pen sales. The new owner stopped the intensive hand work on the Kaweco nibs that made it perhaps the best pen in the World. The nib quality fell to second class of Soennecken and MB.

 

Soennecken and MB then took over as the number one and two of the German pens...They had always been rivals since the later comer MB started in 1912....Soennecken started making fountain pens in 1890. ...Kaweco had been using Morton nibs since 1900; was making pens in the 1890's also.

My Grail Pen is a '50s Soennecken 111 Extra in Herringbone with the 'Click' piston....The best pen in the world....better than a 149. .......I saved up 750 Euro and waited and waited and finally the money burnt a hole in my pocket and I was followed home by a flock of crumb eating Pelikans.

There was a older (passed I think) Lady with great taste who had 6 or 8 '50's Herringbone Soenneckens of various sizes.

 

 

It could well be you have a 'superflex' nib. I have only one Soennecken in it was always even in the plain pens one class over my budget. It is superflex OF ....a wet noodle. (one of two I have) Out side the Soennecken cap band pattern, and the nib, mine has no markings....not even a 'Soennecken'.

Mine is older, '30's from the cap 'jewel'.

 

In the early-mid '50s Soennecken was the best pen in the world according to Lambrau, beating the 149 and the Snorkel. Real good piston mechanics; the 'Click'.

Soennecken got into the ball point market too late...MB and Pelikan got in early and over lived.

 

After 1955 Soennecken started going down.....by the late '50s' tired to survive with a merging with a major French company....they both died as pen companies @ 1960. Soennecken had always been an office supply company....like Geha, Pelikan and MB. It still makes office supplies, staplers, hole punches, toner, and I have a Soennecken mouse pad.

So just in case you become a Soennecken fan, you can buy antique office tools (that work as good as modern) on Ebay or flea markets.

 

Yours looks like a 110-112-116-120*** depending on size from @ 1947...it;'s got a different cap jewel than older ones and later ones...the one in Lambrou's book has three cap rings, your has two....but that's as close as I can get.

*** The book didn't get into exact size of the model row. It's a start. It is not a 'click' piston which came in @ 1950.