Oldchap - French Brand And Inkvue Style Celluloid

[amk]

I took a chance recently and bid on one of those ebay items with a horrible blurry photo and a hopeful feeling that I might not have wasted my money. I'm rather pleased with the pen I received.

 

It's an Oldchap, a French brand as the fact it has an 18 carat nib rather than 14 carat suggests. I can't find out an awful lot about Oldchap but it does appear to have been one of the better brands. (I love the branding - "Old Chap" pens sound as if they wear brogues and tweed, carry round a flask of rather good whisky, and are jolly good writers with a certain addiction to the art of understatement.)

 

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/inkvueandoldchap1.jpg

 

The pen is in an attractive x-ray pattern celluloid, rather similar to that of the Waterman Ink-Vue, and I've taken the photos alongside the Ink-vue I have so you can see the simiarlity. Where the Waterman is a fetching light green, the Oldchap is greyer, but the celluloid has a similar marbling effect within the lighter coloured rays. The ends of the pen and the section appear to be in ebonite which has gone somewhat olive.

 

 

The pen came with an accommodation clip, in the rather heavy ornamented French style. Personally I find these a bit over the top. I've removed it, and found no indication of an original clip.

 

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/inkvueandoldchap5.jpg

It's a lever filler (and needs a new sac). The lever is rather boring, particularly compared to the beautifully precise lever box and articulated lever of the Waterman.

 

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/inkvueandoldchap3.jpg

Now, as for the nib. It's quite big - nearly 22mm long, almost exactly the same size as the Waterman, as it turns out. And on dipping it I find that it writes, quite fine, and with a little flex. A little bit of feedback when I flex it hard. (I have a suspicion that it's been bent at some point so a bit of remedial work might be needed at some point.)

 

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/inkvueandoldchapnibs.jpg

 

I'm really quite impressed by this pen. It's a stunning looking beast, nicely made, and now sits in a box together with the Ink-Vue looking, if not quite a million dollars, at least worthy of its companion pen.

 

Measurements: 12.3 cm long capped, 11.5 cm uncapped.

 

I'd love to know if anyone else has any Oldchaps! (Are they related to Stylochap?)

[fountainpagan]

The clip doesn't belong to this model, or brand. You were right taking it off.

 

It is a clip which looks pretty much to the ones made by Swell on the 20s, and was inspired by the Minerva clip made by Waterman.

Edited March 27, 2014 by fountainpagan

[flighter51]

I bought one at the Arkansas Pen Show from a good friend. Mine is pearlescent brown marble with black chunks throughout the plastic. The pen is marked oldchap and was made by stylochap. This is imprinted on my pen's barrel. I will post a picture. Mine is a beautiful balance pen copy with a really tiny nib that looks totally out of place on the pen but writes with an amazing amount of flex. Absolutely LOVE it! A really fun pen and not one you see all the time.

 

Your Oldchap looks really beautiful. I love the accomodation clip!

 

Fernando Padilla

Arkansas Pen Club

[flighter51]

Here is a picture of mine

[flighter51]

Here is a picture of mine

[Flounder]

Thanks for the review and great photos. These pens are a disciplinary waiting to happen. "Can I borrow a pen?" "Certainly, I'll just whip out the old chap".

[amk]

That marbled pen is a real beauty. The simplicity of the clip really suits the sharp profile.

[amk]

Motivated purely by "ooooh pretty" celluloid fixation, I have managed to acquire a Stylochap too. It's gorgeous; a spirally wrapped celluloid which looks a bit like a snakeskin at first, but actually the little lozenges of black, green and grey look more like one of those optical illusions based on the cube which are concave or convex depending how you look at them. The barrel imprint is "Stylochap 09" and it has the sweetest little roller clip, unfortunately very brassed. A tiny and quite sharply edged concave section in black, very dainty.

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/stylochap1.jpg

 

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/stylochap2.jpg

 

The nib (sorry, couldn't get a good enough pic with my compact) says: 'Iridium pointe super' and has a little shield with what looks like a five-pointed star in it. I'm not certain that's the original nib.

 

Particularly happy as it came with a little Bayard Excelsior in a lovely brown hatch pattern, which matches the green hatch Excelsior I already have. I've done rather well this week! And I shall certainly be looking out for Stylochaps and Old Chaps in future - they're really gorgeous pens.

Edited April 2, 2014 by amk

[Dave at penworkshop]

Adding a few pictures of recently acquired OLD CHAP 09.

 

Lever filler - octagonal shaped barrel and cap - measures 120mm closed.

 

Fitted with a Demi-Lune Warranted nib so presumably not the original nib.

 

A nice example of quite an unusual pen I think.

 

[amk]

Wow, that's a lovely pen. Such colour!