What Did I Miss? (Unusual Skyline)

[Estragon]

Just noticed this BIN auction ended today. It's from a seller that occasionally has interesting pens I've passed on for the blurry photos. The pen is a Skyline with a cap that is either very worn/modified, or else one I've never seen before. He mentions that it's marked "1/10 14k Y.G.F." but describes it as silver/white gold in color. At a glance, the photos show a silver cap with a gold band. Anyone have any insight into what this might be?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVERSHARP-FOUNTAIN-PEN-VINTAGE-SKYLINE-14K-NIB-WEIRD-/332269017501?hash=item4d5cc6d99d%3Ag%3AEVsAAOSw6ShZRdUu&nma=true&si=gtpMZ7U5AEE3aF6B%252Bv6LCm9sL4Y%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[FarmBoy]

A good deal.

[joss]

The cap is not Sterling silver, obviously, but could it be worn Vermeil? I do not know which markings Vermeil caps had.

But you do not expect a silver clip and silver lever on a Vermeil cap. I have never seen a Skyline with a silver lever anyway.

 

A rare pen and somebody got an excellent deal indeed.

[Estragon]

The cap is not Sterling silver, obviously, but could it be worn Vermeil? I do not know which markings Vermeil caps had.

But you do not expect a silver clip and silver lever on a Vermeil cap. I have never seen a Skyline with a silver lever anyway.

 

 

The cap does indeed bear the metal content imprint consistent with Vermeil.The seller notes that the "lines" on the cap are not "embossed." And there is a spot near the lever at the top of the cap where traces of gold apparently remain (the photos could be deceptive here). Taken together, perhaps this does indicate a worn/modified Vermeil cap. According to David Nishimura in a thread from years ago:

 

during the war quite a few Skylines were made with gold filled over silver caps, but they were invariably marked with the gold content. Polishing the gold surface down to the silver is possible, however the metal content stamps would remain.

 

 

If the lever, clip, and clip hardware were also Vermeil on the wartime pens, perhaps these too have been polished down to the underlying sterling(?) The other possibility is that this was a factory job, resembling a Parker 51 wedding band cap. But like I said, I've personally never seen any other examples of such a beast.

[Estragon]

Just for ducks, here's the closest I've come to owning a coveted white-capped Skyline:

 

http://i.imgur.com/WdmwGsv.jpg

 

Oddly enough, that's a breather hole next to the clip – not a dent. A pale imitation of the genuine article I've long been hunting in SS or Sterling.

Edited June 18, 2017 by Estragon

[joss]

Just for ducks, here's the closest I've come to owning a coveted white-capped Skyline:

Oddly enough, that's a breather hole next to the clip – not a dent. A pale imitation of the genuine article I've long been hunting in SS or Sterling.

 

I am a bit confused: that is not an Eversharp I guess (rather looks like one of these Indian made Skyline copies).

[Vintagepens]

From the photos, the eBay pen doesn't look to have silver-colored trim: on my screen, clip and lever seem decidedly more gold in color, despite the text description.

My bet would be this is a heavily polished wartime cap, yellow gold filled over silver. The other trim on these pens also typically show a white metal substrate when the gold fill layer is worn through -- though as noted, it may well not be worn through at all.

[Estragon]

 

I am a bit confused: that is not an Eversharp I guess (rather looks like one of these Indian made Skyline copies).

 

 

Yep, it's a cheap Japanese knockoff called "The Navy Pen," made by the Ohmi Yoko Co.

 

 

From the photos, the eBay pen doesn't look to have silver-colored trim: on my screen, clip and lever seem decidedly more gold in color, despite the text description.

 

My bet would be this is a heavily polished wartime cap, yellow gold filled over silver. The other trim on these pens also typically show a white metal substrate when the gold fill layer is worn through -- though as noted, it may well not be worn through at all.

 

 

Thanks for chiming in, David. I'd wondered if I might've set your ears to itching! Such discrepancies would definitely square with my own past exchanges with this particular seller, whom I believe has good intentions but is somewhat unreliable in his descriptions on occasion. In either case, it appears that joss' Vermeil hypothesis hits the mark. Certainly something to be filed it under things to watch out for when angling for Skylines.

[Brian-McQueen]

I've also noticed that this seller confuses silver and gold colors quite often.

[Vintagepens]

I'll have to tell you sometime about pranking a color-blind collector friend . . . .