Diamond Point Pen Company?

[Chiro75]

I stopped at an antique store on my way home from a recent vacation and scored a Diamond Point Pen Company lever fill pen in black chased hard rubber that seems quite nice. I've learned a little bit about the company, but not about the BCHR pens. Can anyone enlighten me as to it's approximate age and if Diamond Point was the manufacturer, or if another company was contracted by them to make these? It's about the size of a Waterman's 52 with nice chasing and a Warranted 14K nib. The cap has no clip or ring top. Perhaps it used a removable clip, but there is no evidence in the wear on the pen that there was ever a clip on it. No markings on the ends of the cap or barrel. I can provide pics and exact language from the barrel markings if they'd help. The nib seems super flexible, so I think I got a pretty good deal on it.

[Florida Blue]

Diamond Point was an American maker. I don't know their years of operation but they are sought after by collectors as a 2nd tier company. It may not have had a clip if it was made in the 1910s or early 20s. Many mottled hard rubber Watermans of that period did not have clips.

Edited August 14, 2011 by Florida Blue

[Blizzard42]

Could be a Waterman 52, I just ordered a black Waterman BCHR...

[TemurAmir]

See this thread and scroll down to post #14.

[Chiro75]

Thanks! A lot of great info in that thread. I couldn't find it with the search engine. Still didn't see a photo of my Diamond Point, though. I will post some pics when I get a chance...

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have so many pens on my list to buy....hopefully the lottery will give me some money on the week end.

 

I've admired the nibs and some real nice Diamond pens that I've seen or been pointed to.

 

I think 'first tier' a bit restrictive...'first quality' would be a better way of saying something, because some only relate quality to the top 4-5 pens of the time.....and they can change. A Conklin from 1929-32 was as good and modern a pen as any other and first tier if there ever was...but not spending enough advertising doomed them...and then some folks call them 'second' tier.

All my BCHR pens are from the '30's. I'd thought them so rare and now have five.

 

 

There are some folks here with real good patterns that I don't have.

 

Maybe if you go in advanced search you can run down some of those rare patterns.

[Florida Blue]

I think 'first tier' a bit restrictive...'first quality' would be a better way of saying something, because some only relate quality to the top 4-5 pens of the time.....and they can change. A Conklin from 1929-32 was as good and modern a pen as any other and first tier if there ever was...but not spending enough advertising doomed them...and then some folks call them 'second' tier.

All my BCHR pens are from the '30's. I'd thought them so rare and now have five.

 

I would agree. 1st tier is really only Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman, Wahl-Eversharp and Conklin pre-1945. It's not that there were not pens that were the same level of quality it's just that a mandarin yellow Diamond Point flattop will never sell for the same price as a mandarin yellow Duofold.

[drjmb]

I acquired 4 pens as a misc. lot and one turned out to be a 4 1/4" ringed flat-top "New Diamond Point Pen Co. --Fill - E-Z--" with 150 in a longitudinal diamond outline in the center of the barrel. Imprint is perfect and the pen is in great/good(?) condition. The nib has a heart shaped hole and says "14 Kt./JOSLIPIC/3/St. Louis/U.S.A." It's the color and pattern of a red/brick colored ripple, but the stripe pattern runs longitudinally. The nib is soft, but loose on the feed so I can't ink it yet. Lever fill, sac is assumed to be bad. What do I have? My research is favorable as to the quality and collectability but it might be a writing keeper. What's the scoop, Betty Boop? Give me the low-down, Brown.

[Greenie]

Pictures please...!

 

You will find a few Diamond Point fans on FPN and I am sure you will get some information about the pen once we can see it.

[drjmb]

This is my first attempt and the pictures are not very good. I cannot get any closer to show detail.

[MarcShiman]

There's very little documentation surviving on Diamond Point - I've never seen a pre-1945 catalog and I've only seen wholesale advertisements from before 1920 (before the company had been sold). What you are showing here falls somewhere in between 1920 and the 1930's, and I haven't got a clue how to get more specific.

 

The nib is a Lipic nib and doesn't match the pen. Lipic, a St. Louis company, went on to be one of the world's largest suppliers of advertising pens (this came from a co-worker who turned out to be a descendent of the Lipic family).

 

Someone mentioned the relative value of the Parker Mandarins and the other yellow pens that came out of NYC - one thing that drives the value of the Parker Mandarins is the fragile nature of the celluloid they used, and how few you can find whole. By the time the New York manufacturers started using that yellow celluloid, they seem to have found a way to stabilize it. It would seem that most of the cap lips on the Park Rows, the Diamond Points, etc are perfect and they aren't terribly rare as a result.

 

But relatively speaking, the quality of the Diamond Points, Eclipse, Morrisons, etc (all NYC pens) is much lower than the Parkers. They used a thinner plating of gold, thinner barrel and cap walls, smaller nibs, etc. Relatively speaking, the Parkers are overbuilt. If we are assigning tiers on quality alone, then Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman, Conklin, Eversharp were on a different plane from the others.