What are these pens?

[FlexiCat]

I have two BCHR pens, flea market finds, probably from the early to mid 1920's. One is an ALCO, the other, a Liberty. After resacking and cleaning, they turned out to be wonderful pens to use, with a fine flex nib on the ALCO and a soft, flexible nib on the Liberty. Both pens are lever fillers and about the size of a Waterman's 52.

 

Does anyone have any information on either of these two companies? My internet searches have turned up nothing, though I recall seeing one or two Liberties for sale.

[Roger W.]

Liberty was a George Kraker related company - for the discussion go to L&P.

 

George M. Kraker Pens Post-Kraker Pen Company, Pencraft, Michael George, Etc.

 

Roger W.

[Johnny Appleseed]

Actually, I think it depends on the Liberty pen in question.

 

The Liberty Pen Company was a New York Company, started in 1916 and around at least until 1923. One of the owners was George Barrett, who was no relation to C. E. Barrett. They made hard rubber pens of fairly decent quality.

See this link - Liberty Fountain Pen N.Y.

 

There also was a Liberty brand by George Kraker, as Roger's link addresses.

 

ALCO stands for Aikin Lambert. They were a nib maker that also I believe made some pens in the 1900-1910 range. They became the nib-maker for all L.E. Waterman pens, and sometime in the early teens or so they were bought by Waterman. Waterman continued to use the Aikin Lambert name for some lower-priced brands. I don't know much more about them.

 

Is the pen itself marked ALCO, or just the nib? ALCO brand nibs are sometimes used on other brands as well - I know some Baird-North pens used ALCO nibs.

 

Any pictures?

 

John

[FlexiCat]

Thanks to both of you for your replies.

 

My ALCO pen is marked "ALCO" in caps on both the nib and the pocket clip. There is no maker's name on the barrel.

 

In addition to "ALCO", the nib is marked "14KT" and, below "ALCO", which is in an oval, are the numbers "03", probably the nib size?

 

Aiken Lambert did make pens, and I understand they are of good quality. I have one or two A-K fountain pens in my collection as well as a combiniation pencil/dip pen in the original box that I found in a flea market.