Fountain pen color history

[albatrosdva]

I'm curious, what are the earliest colored fountain pens? It seems like a lot of the older pens are black but when did they start making colored pens and which companies started it?

[Kaweco]

Hello albatros

It might be, that the first colored writing instruments were made of galalith or so- called artificial horn or milk stone. The material was invented at the end of the 19 century and was introduced 1900 in Paris. A lot of natural or synthehic dyes could be added to Galalith but the material changes its measurements during the years and is not inert against alcaline liquids, so the use for complete fountainpens was limited. There are some colored propelling pencils from 1910 -1920

Parker introduced his red hard rubber Duofold in 1921, Watermann returned with his Ripple pens in 1923 in motteled black/ red, red/ yellow, green/ yellow and olive/ yellow.

The fp "color revolution" began in 1924, when DuPont produced the first Celluloid rods with no limits in design and colors.

cheers

Thomas

[Johnny Appleseed]

QUOTE

Watermann returned with his Ripple pens in 1923 in motteled black/ red, red/ yellow, green/ yellow and olive/ yellow.

 

Waterman "Ripple" patterns were actually the last gasp of hard rubber. I think they came out a little later than '23 - closer to '25 I think - after Celluloid had already hit the scene. Waterman had bought their main supplier of HR - Day Rubber, not long before the advent of celluloid, so when everyone was moving to colored and patterned celluloid, Waterman found themselves owning a large rubber operation - which they kept alive with the popular new patterns.

 

But I believe that mottled hard rubber goes back to at least the 1860s or 1870s, and Waterman and others had MHR pens pretty early on. Cardinal rubber and other RHR pens were around after 1900 I do believe.

 

The first colored celluloids were put out by Conway Stewart and LeBeauf somewhere in the 1922 range - there is some discussion in the Conway Stewart forum about which came first.

 

John

[andyr7]

The jury is still out on who produced the earliest 'coloured' pens I think, though the field is almost certainly narrowed to LeBoeuf (celluloid) and Conway Stewart, whose coloured Dinkie models were produced in casein (I think this is just the British name for galalith, as referred to earlier) around the same time.

 

I can't help with LeBoeuf but CS Dinkies are my speciality! These were being advertised as being made in a range of colours by April 1924, though there is every chance that coloured Dinkies were being made in limited numbers in late 1922 and 1923. Certainly, their companion pencils, the Duropoints, were being advertised as made in a range of colours in 1922 and it would be surprising if they were not experimenting with producing coloured pens at the same time. One difficulty to be overcome would be in the additional machining of the casein body required to cut lever slots, compared with the body of a pencil, because of the 'memory' effect that can be exhibited by casein. The colours were initially plain blues, greens, reds and even yellows and I have pens that would appear (stylistically) to date no later than 1923 in my collection.

 

The evidence is however all circumstantial and until some detailed, dated sales receipts turn up it will all be just speculation either way!

 

Andy

 

[david i]

depends what we mean by color.

 

I'm uncertain but believe mottled HR (red/black) showed up before 1900. Cardinal (RHR) around 1900.

 

d

 

[andyr7]

I was assuming 'colour' meant that you could produce a pen in any colour that you wanted. Vulcanite / hard rubber pens were obviously produced earlier but there was never full control over the colours that could be produced.

 

Andy

[Jeff L]

Setting aside the issue of colored hard rubber, as far as LeBoeuf is concerned, they filed for a patent for constructing pens in celluloid in July 17, 1918. The patent was issued in May 6, 1919. See #1302935.

 

It appears that plastic manufacturers were already selling celluloid in tubes by this early date.

 

On the tangential matter of constructing pens from celluloid, there's also #1576588 March 16, 1926. This one was issued to Marx Finstone of Eclipse. Here he was making pens from rolled sheets of celluloid, a cheaper, pardon me, a less expensive approach to pen manufacture.

[andyr7]

QUOTE (Jeff L @ Apr 10 2007, 01:50 AM)

Setting aside the issue of colored hard rubber, as far as LeBoeuf is concerned, they filed for a patent for constructing pens in celluloid in July 17, 1918.  The patent was issued in May 6, 1919.  See #1302935.

Again, I'm not speaking from a position of authority here but I understood the first celluloid pens produced by LeBoeuf were still black, which explains why the dates of 1923 /1924 are widely quoted for the production of the first coloured pens, whichever company was responsible.

 

Can some of the LeBoeuf collecting experts clarify this?

Andy