Is a Blackbird Pen a Poor Mans Swan?1

[colliewalker1]

One reads very little about the Blackbird Pan' but from time to time I see one advertised which looks an attractive proposition.Is this make made as well as a Swan, the company which took it over - or is ir a 'poor man's' Swan'?

 

Can I find a history of the Blackbird anywhere please?

 

Denis

Cheshire, UK.

[Readymade]

You may wanna take a look at this thread:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...?showtopic=1497

[Maja]

Heh, I was expecting Oxonian to chime in because he knows a lot about English pens

(he probably didn't see this thread... )

[Oxonian]

hi folks,

Maja, you're right I hadn't seen it but I have now.

 

Mabie Todd, the makers of Swan, Blackbird, Swallow pens as well as a number of pens made to order for various retailers etc were in origin an American company but a lot of their later production and one of their major markets was in Britain and it the British Empire as it then was.

 

Swan was MTs top brand and BLackbird was their second, quite where Swallow was expected to fit in is a little unclear. Blackbird and Swallow names sometimes were used in markets where there was already a maker using the Swan name.

In general Blackbirds were less ornate than their Swan stablemates but they could be found with 9ct or 14ct gold bands on barrels and on caps, the nibs were sometimes smaller than on similar sized Swan pens but there were big nibbed, (size 6 &7 and possibly 8) Blackbirds and Swallows as well as Swans. Solid gold, silver and other serious exotica were mostly limited to the Swan brand, I have not seen a solid 9ct B'bird as far as I remember.

 

Blackbird pens were every bit as well made as and often from the same materials as Swans but as far as I know there was never a B'bird equivalent of the Swan Eternal lifetime guarantee pens, there were B'birds in the same materials etc but none as far as I know carried a lifetime warranty. The gold plating may have been thinner on B'birds and nickel plating was more common on B'birds over the years and less often seen on Swans although the bottom end Swans did use Chrome and nickel on some models.

 

I suppose B'birds were aimed at the lower end of the market, they were cheaper than similar Swan pens of their day so I suppose they were the poor man's Swan but they deserve as much attention from collectors and seem to get it, attractive B'birds (BB2/46 Turquoise for example) fetch very good prices only exceeded by some of the more exotic Swans.

 

Cheers, John

[demeter]

hi folks,

Maja, you're right I hadn't seen it but I have now.

 

Mabie Todd, the makers of Swan, Blackbird, Swallow pens as well as a number of pens made to order for various retailers etc were in origin an American company but a lot of their later production and one of their major markets was in Britain and it the British Empire as it then was.

 

Swan was MTs top brand and BLackbird was their second, quite where Swallow was expected to fit in is a little unclear. Blackbird and Swallow names sometimes were used in markets where there was already a maker using the Swan name.

In general Blackbirds were less ornate than their Swan stablemates but they could be found with 9ct or 14ct gold bands on barrels and on caps, the nibs were sometimes smaller than on similar sized Swan pens but there were big nibbed, (size 6 &7 and possibly 8) Blackbirds and Swallows as well as Swans. Solid gold, silver and other serious exotica were mostly limited to the Swan brand, I have not seen a solid 9ct B'bird as far as I remember.

 

Blackbird pens were every bit as well made as and often from the same materials as Swans but as far as I know there was never a B'bird equivalent of the Swan Eternal lifetime guarantee pens, there were B'birds in the same materials etc but none as far as I know carried a lifetime warranty. The gold plating may have been thinner on B'birds and nickel plating was more common on B'birds over the years and less often seen on Swans although the bottom end Swans did use Chrome and nickel on some models.

 

I suppose B'birds were aimed at the lower end of the market, they were cheaper than similar Swan pens of their day so I suppose they were the poor man's Swan but they deserve as much attention from collectors and seem to get it, attractive B'birds (BB2/46 Turquoise for example) fetch very good prices only exceeded by some of the more exotic Swans.

 

Cheers, John

 

 

Thanks John for the history...but you sparked another couple of questions:where do Jackdaws fit in the scheme of things, and are there any other Swans you haven't covered?

 

Take care,

Andrew

 

[Maja]

hi folks,

Maja, you're right I hadn't seen it but I have now.

John, as always, thank you so much for taking the time to write a detailed answer to someone's question. It is greatly appreciated, Sir! :clap1:

 

[gaijin94]

<!--quoteo(post=456782:date=Dec 24 2007, 03:48 AM:name=Oxonian)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxonian @ Dec 24 2007, 03:48 AM) 456782[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->hi folks,

Maja, you're right I hadn't seen it but I have now.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

John, as always, thank you so much for taking the time to write a detailed answer to someone's question. It is greatly appreciated, Sir! <img src="https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":clap1:" border="0" alt="clap1.gif" />

I have just obtained a blue/ turquoise-like blackbird with gold trims.

I was wondering if you could tell me what BB2/46 means and how do I tell if my pen is a BB2/46?

 

Thank you so much for your knowledge. Just amazing!

 

Chris

[red52ripple]

A photograph would help. The BB2/ series is quite early, introduced around 1921 and undergoing several changes into the thirties. The BB2 part means Blackbird with a Size 2 nib, and 46 is a colour code. I don't know which colour or pattern it identifies but it seems to be in the mixed colour range.

[gaijin94]

Hi red52ripple,

 

Thanks for the information.

Please find attached a photo of the pen.

 

Chris

[red52ripple]

Hi gaijin94,

That's a very much later pen, among the last produced by the company. These weren't assigned model numbers or if they were, the numbers weren't imprinted on the barrel or cap as had previously been the practice. Pens of this shape and appearance appear either as Swans or Blackbirds, and I have one at the moment that bears both names. These pens are generally regarded as being poorer quality than their predecessors. It's true that the company has dropped their earlier heat-inserted clips in favour of a Waterman-type studded fitting at the top of the cap. Also, the gold plating on these is little more than a gold-wash and it comes off very easily. Some people have reported poor nibs in this range of pens though I have to say that has not been my experience. There are very similar pens with a knurled turn-button and pressure-bar filling system.

 

Personally, I like these pens. The shape is well designed and the mixed colour patterns are attractive. They're a straightforward repair and all those I've had have written well. Despite assertions of poor quality they seem to have survived in good order in considerable numbers.

[gaijin94]

Dear Deborah,

 

Thank you so much for that very wonderful bit of information.

That has certainly filled me in and taught me something new.

As I am still only very very new to the FP world, the kindness

and knowledge of people like yourself is very impressionable

to say the least. I can't thank you enough.

 

Kindest wishes,

 

Chris

[Bo Bo Olson]

I don't know their names...in I did not buy from them. I almost did.

There are two professional restorer's on English Ebay. They both have very good sites.

((Be aware there is a jerk with a good looking site that sells, 'normal bite marks', normal brassing, needs a sack and bent/busted nib' Swans for the same price...but it is listed so.

 

Colored Sean or Blackbird pens are going to cost you 4X or more than simple black and gold. One of the prettiest of the Swan/Blackbird pens I ever saw was a Blackbird.

 

But what is more important to me is the wide range of nib flexes Swan produced. ((Swan is good up to 1955, after that quality fell until they went out of business because of BP Plague.))

In the two 'Buy Now' restored sellers, they tell you if the nib is regular flex, semi-flex, flexi or easy full flex.

Just look in the Buy Now part of the auction not the other...sooner or later you will stumble across those professional sellers, they know the flex of the nib and show you the pen as well as possible.

 

 

I'd spent some 6 weeks reading and chasing Swans so slow I didn't catch any. Most of the sellers didn't know a thing...so it was a total gamble to what flex that pen had.

 

I'd finally said I'll bite the bullet and buy an Easy Full Flex nibbed 'black and gold' Swan from the more expensive but fully restored Swan 'buy now' dealers...needing the nib.

 

Then I ran into an Easy Full Flex nib locally in Germany on a German pen.

 

There are some real fine looking Swan/Blackbird pens.