Mystery British Pen

[rhr]

Mystery British Pen, the Poppy (?) pen.

 

Can anyone identify this pen? It's a bchr pen about the size of a Waterman's #56, although it has a Warranted #4 nib. But it's not just any old ordinary Warranted nib, because it's also imprinted with a hallmark, a symbol that consists of a capital letter "P" within a pentagon. The only clues that give it away as a British pen are the 14Ct mark on the nib and this hallmark. There is no imprint on the barrel, but the lever box looks a lot like a Waterman's lever box, and there is a symbol that looks like either a four-petaled Poppy, or a four-leafed Clover, on the lever where the Waterman's Ideal Globe normally would be. The same symbol appears on the clip, which again looks like a Waterman's rivet-clip, and it also has the words "Cap-Clip" on it, with the words reversed from what you'd expect to find on a Waterman's clip, "Clip-Cap". The cap has a lip band, so that probably places it in the mid-1920s, or a little after, and it still has its price sticker with a "Medium" nib designation. All in all, it's a very well-made pen that's doing its best to mimic a bchr Waterman's #56 pen. It's a Waterman's equivalent of a no-name Duofold look-alike pen.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/rhrpen/Poppy.jpg

 

Cheers,

 

George.

 

:ph34r:

Edited July 14, 2007 by rhr

[Keith with a capital K]

Just speculating...

 

I would not be surprised to find that this pen was made by Waterman for export to the UK as things like the Waterman lever box were patented and usually hotly defended.

 

Waterman did have a history of making pens for other companies that were all but identical to their regular line with different stamping and in this case, hallmarks.

 

The hallmark would have been required for the pen to have met export regulations or could have been installed in the UK to circumvent this requirement.

 

Finding who used that clover symbol will probably do a lot to find who produced, sold, or markettted this pen.

[rhr]

When I found the pen last year around November, I posted my request on various pen boards. It was suggested back then that the pen may have been made by Burnham, or possibly De La Rue. Burnham seems to have been notorious for copying other's products.

 

Perhaps someone in the UK could do me a favor and look up the hallmark on the nib, a capital P inside a pentagon-shaped shield. This specific punch mark is actually a maker's, or sponsor's mark, rather than an Assay office, or date mark.

 

Sincerely,

 

George.

 

:ph34r: