Selling Fountain Pens In 1919

[AAAndrew]

Here's a glimpse of how one successful salesman sold fountain pens in 1919.

 

From the American Stationer, v. 85, March 8, 1919, p. 8

 

Note: "Manifolding" is writing with carbon paper which requires a very stiff nib.

 

"How I Sell Fountain Pens"

 

In the sale of fountain pens, I have found the following method very satisfactory. We will call it: "Sales by the Elimination Process."

 

When a customer comes in to buy a fountain pen, I ask him on the way over to the case if he likes a stub pen or if he does any manifolding work. Generally the answer is "No" in both cases.

 

Then I inquire if he likes a coarse or a fine point. If he replies he likes a fine point, I immediately ask him if he uses a stiff or a flexible pen. This is all done really before the case is open so upon opening the case I know just what tray to bring out to find a pen to suit him.

 

We have our pens separated in six different divisions so it is very easy to ascertain just what lot to show.

 

I find this a very satisfactory method of selling fountain pens and the customer is sold a pen that he likes and goes away satisfied.

 

By A. L. Johnston of George Bros., Lincoln, Neb.

 

 

 

 

[Runnin_Ute]

This makes perfect sense that it would be done this way. The trays were probably organized not by brand necessarily, but by characteristics. So you might have a Parker, a Waterman , an Esterbrook and a Sheaffer in the same tray. Rather than different models of one brand in the tray.

[sciumbasci]

Huh. I thought stub pens were in high demand back then. Have stubs always been a niche market?

 

Also, why would the seller ask you want a flexible or rigid nib, if the answer to carbon copies was already negative?

Perhaps, as Bo Bo Olsen teaches, rigid meant "anything but flex" i.e. semi-flex?

[AAAndrew]

In the dip pen world, stubs would have been a minority of nib types. They were considered desirable by specific types of professions who wrote a lot but didn’t care so much about nice penmanship. They were considered easier to write with.

 

If you think that in 1919 the main nib reference is still the dip pen, then “rigid” would most likely be equivalent to “firm” in dip pens. A “nail” in today’s terms would then have been called “manifold”in dip pens. “Firm” dip nibs would be considered semi-flex in today’s fountain pens. So, it’s reasonable to think that a “rigid” nib then would be what we would consider semi-flex.

 

Clear as mud?

[Inky.Fingers]

We surely mudded it up by forgetting how to write properly due to the rush of time. We are left with what people used to called scribbling. As opposed to what we called fancy writting today was common then.

 

I am glad some of us still takes time to write proper.

 

Pass it on.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Don't know if they would be semi-flex, in there was also regular flex.

 

You can find manifold and stub nibs back in dip pens too. I'd not expect a stub to be all that flexible, but I could be wrong.

Business script was the main script, used by the stand at the sloping desk, for 12 hours a day.

 

Spenserian for the well to do to show off writing personal correspondence or as a Signature. Only the Boss had a sit down desk. Such desks were thought to make clerks ...lazy.

 

Not every flexible dip pen nib was the equivalent of a Hunt 99-100-101. I have some with 'only' half so much flex.....closer to a 'stiffer' Wet Noodle than those Hunts. And a couple under the Wet Noodle pressure set.