My Own Vintage Engraved Name...

[MercianScribe]

You know what I think would be really cool?

 

Having a vintage pen that had been engraved with the initials MJH, MH, or the name shown in the photo below (for those who don't really relish broadcasting their names over Da Internetz!

 

Anyone up for making a sticky thread so if anyone else comes across a pen with your initials/name they're not particularly attached to, they can have a look and make you an offer? Would that work...?

 

 

[jchch1950]

I have several pens with personalization but none with your initials.Good luck with your search.

[Chrissy]

I would never have a personalised pen with any initials. I prefer to keep them pristine and original.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have no MH pens. I have 3-4 engraved with someone's name. The one in 'gold' on my rolled gold capped P-45 looks classy enough.

 

My first thought is not resale, and I come from a time when having one's name or initials on one's pen was a mark of class....engraved pens were given fro graduation HS or Collage, wedding anniversary's or retirement; besides making a pen harder to steal....and use.

 

Engraving a school pen, which I knew a few kids so lucky over the years, cost at least a whole dollar in the '50-60's. Near 'half' the price of an Esterbrook! My I could still have that first pen.....mine got stolen every single year....including the Jotter...............the Bic solved that.....well actually Skillcraft did first............but if you kept the cap of your Bic it was harder to steal. Skillcraft was cheap enough to afford it being stolen.

 

Look at all the lost my pen or my pen pouch filled with pens threads...had they been engraved there would be much more a chance of getting them back when searching for them on Ebay.....or even being turned in as found.

 

I expect to pay and re-sell 10% less for an engraved pen...oddly for me, the 10% in buying can be a larger amount, than when selling. One is feeding a greed need, the other has less of a hurry attached to it.

 

As soon as I get done with this western saga I'm writing, I'll engrave my name on all my pens and sell them for 10% more...... .......buy a book get a free pen???? Well that's better than buy a pen and get a 'free' book.

Edited December 6, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[sidthecat]

I have a Doric ringtop engraved with the name “Tootie.” There was a pencil, too, but the dealer sold it separately.

Has anyone else found dumb nicknames on pens?

[inkstainedruth]

I only have three pens that have engraving on them.

There first is a Wearever that a guy at an antiques show GAVE me (on the grounds he couldn't sell it -- although I don't know why he thought that; it needed a new sac but otherwise is serviceable and has a decent stubbiest nib on it). I tracked down the name to that of a jewelry store in Canonsburg, PA from back in the 1940s (the building is still there, and is now an antiques mall -- I keep meaning to wander down there with the pen, just to show it to the people working there.

The second is on the Red Shadow Wave Vacumatic I bought three summers ago at the PCA auction at DCSS. I have not been able to find any info on the person (kinda wish I had, so I could tell the person's heirs: "Look, this pen belonged to someone in your family and it's still getting use 80 years later!"). And it's one of my favorites. The engraving isn't obtrusive.

The third is what I think is a Welsharp (well, the nib certainly is, at any rate). It's a cute little mini pen, about 3" long, capped (and way less expensive than the Peter Pan I saw in the same antiques mall). IIRC, it's got the initials "MH" on it, but I'd have to double-check. The initials are kinda obtrusive because they're black on an off-white pen....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: Initials on the Welsharp could also be "MW", though, sorry. I just don't remember at the moment....

Edited December 6, 2017 by inkstainedruth

[AAAndrew]

I am somewhat partial to engraved pens. My favorite, even more than the Esterbrook celebrating the Kiwanis Pancack Breakfast, is the Esterbrook just engraved with "Old Man Carroll."

 

I want so much to know who Old Man Carroll was.

[ParkerDuofold]

You know what I think would be really cool?

 

Having a vintage pen that had been engraved with the initials MJH, MH, or the name shown in the photo below (for those who don't really relish broadcasting their names over Da Internetz!

 

Anyone up for making a sticky thread so if anyone else comes across a pen with your initials/name they're not particularly attached to, they can have a look and make you an offer? Would that work...?

Hi MS, et al,

 

I don't know... ...the odds of that coming together seem fairly remote to me.

 

I know this will put many here into a tailspin, but if you can find an engraver; vintage pens can be engraved, too. Why not just take one of your favorite vintage pens and have it engraved?

 

 

- Anthony

[ParkerDuofold]

...I tracked down the name to that of a jewelry store in Canonsburg, PA from back in the 1940s (the building is still there, and is now an antiques mall -- I keep meaning to wander down there with the pen, just to show it to the people working there.

Hi Ruth, et al,

 

The seller's attitude surprises me, too,... usually advertising pens sell pretty well... even when it's one of those mysterious fountain pen thingy's.

 

 

- Anthony

[ParkerDuofold]

I am somewhat partial to engraved pens...

 

+ 1. Me too, if it's tastefully and professionally done.

 

 

I want so much to know who Old Man Carroll was.

 

I don't know, but I bet you he was a jolly, good fellow.

 

 

- Anthony

[MercianScribe]

I have several pens with personalization but none with your initials.Good luck with your search.

 

Thanks anyway! It wasn't just for me... I was rather thinking others round here might be interested enough to make this thread a runner, but if not, fair enough!

 

I would never have a personalised pen with any initials. I prefer to keep them pristine and original.

 

I wouldn't engrave one... probably... but it would be cool if I could find one already engraved...! Fortunately also, my name is common as muck, so that's a plus. I wouldn't expect to find a vintage engraved with 'Bo Bo Olson' for example!

 

As for your suggestion, Parker, I'm afraid there's no way I'd engrave my name on a vintage... well maybe if I became famous, as Bo Bo said!

 

I've never had any pens with names except one extremely badly hacked Estie, and my Granny's Blackbird with her maiden name initials in it in plain block capitals.

 

Thanks for offering to look, Ruth... and just my luck if it is my initials, I'm a bit too big for Peter Pans! I do have a sister with the same initials, however!

[JotterAddict62]

I like interesting engravings on pens with some history to them. I have four P51's with the following engraving.

 

Wisconsin Legislature 1947 [ Black ]

 

Wisconsin Legislature 1957 { Black ]

 

Winner -1953

Hot Nestle Contest [ Black ]

 

Big Six Champion [ date code T7 ] Cedar Blue

Wally Rouse

 

I don't go out of my way to find them, they find me.

[Runnin_Ute]

I have two with engraving; a black Esterbrook LJ Bell Systems and a black Parker 45 with Sergio Lopes.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Hi MS, et al,

 

I don't know... ...the odds of that coming together seem fairly remote to me.

 

I know this will put many here into a tailspin, but if you can find an engraver; vintage pens can be engraved, too. Why not just take one of your favorite vintage pens and have it engraved?

 

 

- Anthony

 

I doesn't put me in a tailspin at all, but I just went through some of my favorite vintage pens mentally, and even assuming that it wouldn't damage the pen, I'd hate to look at it afterward and think that it looked worse that way. Which might well be the case, particularly with the vintage celluloids.

 

Finding a vintage pen in the wild that did have my initials (probably a fairly common set) or correctly spelled first and last name (my first name has a pretty unusual spelling) would be a very cool thing indeed. But I don't think I'd care to share a want-to-buy based on just that, or on just that and a maximum price. The pen might well be one that I wouldn't want for other reasons. If luck does send such a thing my way at a low enough price, I'll probably grab it, but I won't make a goal of it.

[ParkerDuofold]

I doesn't put me in a tailspin at all, but I just went through some of my favorite vintage pens mentally, and even assuming that it wouldn't damage the pen, I'd hate to look at it afterward and think that it looked worse that way. Which might well be the case, particularly with the vintage celluloids.

Hi ISW, et al,

 

Use an engraver you trust; have them engrave a modern pen of a similar style/material... then you'll have an excellent idea how the vintage pen will look "afterwards."

 

I also would not recommend engraving pure celluloid.

 

 

- Anthony

 

 

EDITED to correct typo.

Edited December 8, 2017 by ParkerDuofold