Onoto Swift

[johnmc2]

Here's a rather nice pen I have just finished working on. It had a mangled nib, broken feed and bent lever.

I've fitted a 33 Onoto nib I had lying around.

The barrel inprint reads:

ONOTO SWIFT

DE LA RUE LONDON

The numbers 560 and 342 are stamped onto the end of the barrel.

Capped length is 120mm

I can't see anything on the internet about this pen, so any information would be appreciated

 

Edited November 26, 2016 by johnmc2

[praxim]

Barrel imprint and numbers aside (not to mention colour), this looks the same in all other respects as my 850, which I had initially identified as a Swift but it is not. I did not notice 560 nor 342 in a brief scan of the pen index in Steve Hull's Onoto book. I expect it was produced around the 1920s to early 30s.

 

Mine was similarly mangled but with work has turned into a nice little practical pen.

[johnmc2]

Barrel imprint and numbers aside (not to mention colour), this looks the same in all other respects as my 850, which I had initially identified as a Swift but it is not. I did not notice 560 nor 342 in a brief scan of the pen index in Steve Hull's Onoto book. I expect it was produced around the 1920s to early 30s.

 

Mine was similarly mangled but with work has turned into a nice little practical pen.

 

Thanks for that. Possible Australian production, do you think, or did that happen later?

[praxim]

Australian production was later, firstly assembling British parts in or after WWII then building under licence in the 50s and finally taking over, with some new models (?), in the late 50s until I think the early 60s. I am fairly confident this is not an Australian pen, unless, perhaps, they made older pens under new numbers. The Swift first emerged in the early 1920s and I think variants under different names and numbers continued well into the 1930s.

 

When I have some leisure later, I will wander through photos to see whether I can clarify.

[northlodge]

Nice pen!

 

Interesting in that I have come across a number of "New Swift" DLR pens, which are all split cap examples and clearly earlier than your model. One would have thought "the New Swift" would be a follow on from "The Swift".

 

I have also seen several DLR 560 and 1332 pens that match yours in style (and sometimes colour) but without the Swift identifier.