Jump to content

Unusual Swan Ring Top Fountain Pen.


Whoneedsasword

Recommended Posts

Just wondering if anyone can shed any light on this fountain pen? It's just over 3.75" long and it seems to be made of some kind of plastic with a wood grain pattern. The imprint on the lower end of barrel simply reads: SWAN PEN

PAT. MAY 21.18post-142600-0-62671000-1522946076_thumb.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 17
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Greenie

    4

  • sidthecat

    4

  • Whoneedsasword

    4

  • chunya

    3

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

This is one of the Swan Moire ring tops pens from the 1920s.

The material is celluloid.

It came in several colors, including green, blue, lavender, coral, fuschia and others. The band colors and pattern vary depending on the base color.

 

Here is an ad from 1928 that shows some of the 142 series colored pens, as well as some of the moire ring tops

 

fpn_1523159696__swan_142_and_242_ad_1928

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice! I have one in Jade, which seems to have been the color du jour in the 1920s.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is one of the Swan Moire ring tops pens from the 1920s.

The material is celluloid.

It came in several colors, including green, blue, lavender, coral, fuschia and others. The band colors and pattern vary depending on the base color.

 

Here is an ad from 1928 that shows some of the 142 series colored pens, as well as some of the moire ring tops

 

fpn_1523159696__swan_142_and_242_ad_1928

Thanks very much for sharing such an informative illustration. It's very much appreciated and more than I was hoping for!

All I need now is a replacement ring top and it'll be back to original condition.....barring 90 years of use, that is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Greenie is right, Were the small ring tops 192 + colour code?

Is there a number on the base of the barrel?

No number on base of barrel, just the imprint as quoted on lower end below lever filler.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are ring tops to match the colored pens (142 AND 242 series). The codes are 172/(color code)

 

The Moire ring tops have their own system. The colors are unique to those pens.

 

They are numbered 92

The color codes are single letters

 

N/92 = Nile Green

F/92 = fushsia

C/92 = coral

B/92 = blue [why is this name NOT fancy???]

 

There is also a lavender and an ivory. I do not have these colors. The Moak book could not verify the letter code for those two colors

The Ivory pen in the book is marked M/92. I have not seen ads naming the color, but the ivory color is shown in ads, just without reference to a name. The lavender moire is names as such in ads, so I would guess it is L/92

 

Anyone have a Lavender or Ivory Moire ring top to check?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are ring tops to match the colored pens (142 AND 242 series). The codes are 172/(color code)

 

The Moire ring tops have their own system. The colors are unique to those pens.

 

They are numbered 92

The color codes are single letters

 

N/92 = Nile Green

F/92 = fushsia

C/92 = coral

B/92 = blue [why is this name NOT fancy???]

 

There is also a lavender and an ivory. I do not have these colors. The Moak book could not verify the letter code for those two colors

The Ivory pen in the book is marked M/92. I have not seen ads naming the color, but the ivory color is shown in ads, just without reference to a name. The lavender moire is names as such in ads, so I would guess it is L/92

 

Anyone have a Lavender or Ivory Moire ring top to check?

 

You are right, and thanks for the clarification Greenie, I think my brain was in neutral yesterday. Has anyone ever seen an ivory example?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can confirm the Ivory one is M/92. It is the exact opposite of the coral in that it has coral bands and the coral pen has ivory bands.

 

Steve Hull in his 1994 article on the MT Colour codes in WES Journal No 39 had individual colour codes for the Moire colours: Nile Green /90, Coral /91, Fuschia, /92, Lavender /93, Blue /94, and Ivory /95. I have a a 192/94 in Blue Moire and it is identical dimension wise with my C and M 92s.

 

The other ring tops are indeed 172/XX where XX is 51 for Tangerine, 52 for Lapis, 53 for Scarlet and 54 for Black and Jade. Interestingly the cap band configuration is different on each

Edited by Wardok
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder why "M"

I just looked at a long on line list of synonyms for ivory, and the only "M" is "milky" or "milk-white"

I guess it could be as fancy as saying "Nile Green" to get the "N" designation for green.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wondering...

 

Similar color range in Parkers, so could the M on the ivory likewise indicate rather than a solid color, the "M" had the striped effect that replicated natural ivory?

Imitation ivory plastic's were popular.

 

Along those lines, another thought is that the "ivory" is not a fancy color, unlike all the other pens in the ads, and so the M stands for Moire? Was that word used back then? The ads only seem to call them "pastel".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just saw your gorgeous moire's in the other thread!

The moire I believe is a patterned fabric reference - fancier word than stating subtle stripes.

Look up French Ivory, a commonly used striped pattern celluloid that replicated natural ivory. I could be way off, but the shift from fabric pattern term to a natural material may be why the use of M for striped vs plain ivory color is confusing? Also the stripes in ivory celluloid made it appear to be the more desirable natural ivory, not utilitarian natural bone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

An obliging FPN member just put one up for sale and I GRABBED it. A very nice nib, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

An obliging FPN member just put one up for sale and I GRABBED it. A very nice nib, too.

I had a look at the stamp: B/92. Interestingly, the blue is darker and greener than the example in the picture. Perhaps there was so much variation that they couldn’t agree on a more precise name.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...