De La Rue's "Onoto" Marque

[Arnav]

The De La Rue company seems to have marketed only a portion of its pens under the "Onoto" marque. My impression (I'm no expert) is that the Onotos were fitted with "Onoto" nibs, and the others carried De La Rue "Warranted" nibs.

 

Interestingly, some of the non-Onoto pens were marketed as "The De La Rue Pen", which would be an odd way to name a lower-quality pen.

 

What's the significance of the "Onoto" labelling? Are they better pens? Or just a difference in warranty? Are the non-"Onoto"s good?

 

Or might the division be related to whether the pens had the plunger-filler?

 

Thanks.

 

--Arnav

[wimg]

Hi Arnav,

 

The company was "Onoto de la Rue", and in the early period they used the Onoto name more. Later on, they wanted to establish themselves properly as an upmarket brand and started selling their pens, as "The De La Rue Pen". And these are Onoto pens.

 

Pens that were manufactured by them for other brands, did not use the name Onoto, except occasionally for the nibs.

 

And the markings on their own nibs are mostly time-dependent. If I am not mistaken, timewise it was "warranted" first, then Onoto, next De La Rue, and then they added the sunburst.

 

The quality of the pen had nothing to do with the Onoto or De La Rue labeling. Same firm. Same quality pen. They did have a range varying from cheaper student´s pens, to high end pens like the Magna.

 

The selling under the Onoto vs the De la Rue name is, IOW, purely a marketing thing, and "The De La Rue" pen is certainly not a lesser quality pen. Similarly, the plunger fillers and lever fillers are no different when it comes to quality. The plunger fillers obviously are more expensive to manufacture, and you´ll find these therefore generally on the more expensive, and hence often bigger models, to justify the additional cost.

 

HTH, kind regards,

Wim