Shanghai Gold Star Pen

[Johnny Appleseed]

I found this in a stationers in the Wan Chai district in Hong Kong, not far from the Wan Chai market. There are skads of these little stationers all over Hong Kong and most of them have a few trays of modern Parkers (some of questionable source) and little else. But this was sitting next to a couple of battered Parker Challengers in this one particular shop.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/GoldStar-pen.jpg

 

I was able to get a partial translation of the imprint, which reads "Gold Star" (on either side of the star) and "Shanghai Gold Star [something] factory product". The characters for "Gold Star" are also on the clip.

 

It fills by an internal bulb-filler unit. The filler unit is clear with a clear silicon or nylon (pli-glass?) bulb on the end. It has a breather tube, so you squeeze the bulb 4-6 times until no more air bubbles come out. It worked fine without any restoration, though the internals show some signs that it was filled with a permanent ink.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/GoldStar-Internals.jpg

 

The nib appears to be gold, though I am guessing 12K. I did not get a translation on the nib imprint. The tipping showed definite flattening - someone used this one well - but a few strokes of smoothing mylar took care of that and it is now a great writer.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/GoldStarNib.jpg

 

If anyone knows anything about when this was made, or who the company was I would love to hear it. One line of speculation would of course be the Shangai Pen Company that makes Hero, but that is speculation at the moment.

 

John

[jaytaylor]

I know nothing of this pen but I do like it, the cap band is interesting and the matching section - nice.

 

It would be good to see this pen polished up.

 

 

Edit - would you be interested in selling or trading???

Edited October 24, 2007 by jaytaylor

[blak000]

How much did you end up paying for it?

[kkhon]

Very interesting pen indeed. Congrats on the find.

 

Gold Star is actually one of the major Chinese (Shanghai) penmakers dating from the 1930s, alongside Hero, Wing Sung, Guan Le Ming (which incidentally makes the nib of your pen) & others. While I know nothing about the particulars of this pen, you can probably deduce its age from Western pens with similar designs (e.g. a Hero 100 *can't* come before a Parker "51"), since assimilating Western designs would be the norm those days.

 

The imprint on the nib reads:

"Le Ming" (top line, 2 characters)

"Guan" (the almost circular character in the middle - a highly-stylised & rounded rendition of the actually squarish character 'Guan')

"50% Gold" (bottom line, so it's indeed a 12K)

 

Which makes it a replacement nib from Guan Le Ming. It must be a well-used & loved pen, since the former user has chosen to replace the nib rather than getting a new pen.

 

Hope it helps.

Edited October 25, 2007 by kkhon

[Maja]

Nice find, John!

I like the pattern and matching section (as jaytaylor pointed out)...and the Waterman styling of the clip

 

Enjoy!!!!

[Methersgate14]

What a very nice, and interesting, pen.

 

I'm regretting the years I spent in Hong Kong and Beijing before I discovered old fountain pens; I suspect that I walked straight past dozens of them in the Beijing flea markets in the middle Nineties!

[Johnny Appleseed]

Thanks to all who responded.

 

The pen cost HK$350, which is about $45 US. I am not sure if I paid too much or got a good deal, but I am pretty happy with it.

 

kkhon, thanks for the information on the nib and the company. My guess on the dating of this would be the 1950s or later, based on the clear internal workings. The filler mechanism is made of some sort of clear plastic, with a clear silicon or nylon bulb on the end, and I don't think they had too much of that prior to the late 40s.

 

Jay - I'll be hanging on to this one for a while, but thanks for the interest.

 

John

[Alostdream]

Hi,

Just my 2 cent, on the nib it state is 50% gold. Not to sure how about K it is. ~ maybe some other people will like to convert it for you.

 

 

[Johnny Appleseed]

Thanks!

 

Pure gold = 24K so 50% = 12K.

 

John

 

 

[Johnny Appleseed]

Well, it appears from this old post - Duke pens review - that Shanghai Gold Star pen co is one half of the joint venture that makes the Duke fountain pens.

 

John

[xiangyu929]

Would you be interested in selling or trading?

I can not find it anywhere.

Thank you very much

Please contact me。

My Email：xiangyu929@gmail.com