Help Identifying German Pen From The ~1950S

[pessimusdiscipulus]

Dear all,

 

I bought this pen from an ebay retailer in Germany and all they knew about it was that the pen was made in Germany in the 1950s and I was wondering if anyone has seen this pen before or the unique anchor marking on the underside of the clip. It might be one of those many forgotten, mass-produced pens from that time period, but any help is appreciated.

 

It's a piston filler and the nib is a semi-flex that is has "Edelchrom qualitat B" stamped on it. It's actually a pretty well made pen and is very comfortable to write with. There's a nice ink window. The nib was pretty scratchy, but I smoothed it a bit on an emery board. It is NOS, so the nib was a bit out of alignment, but it's a nice writer on cheap paper, which I use a lot since I'm a grad student.

 

The only markings on it are the "Ideal" engraved on the body of the pen and the anchor(?) logo on the underside of the clip which is visible in the last photo.

 

Anyway, let me know if you know who the maker is or any more information! Thanks!

[PaulS]

nice pen - sorry, can't help with maker. According to Lambrou, mid C20 Germany could boast of something like 120 manufacturers/producers of f.ps. - I've had a look through his book but nothing to match this one yet, and doesn't bode well that the German seller was also unable to help.

However, wish you luck with an i.d.

[Sasha Royale]

This was a time of excellent, plastic-piston school pens made for students in Germany. Many were unbranded, and very good writers.

I have a couple in my collection, and gladly rescue all that I can find. Enjoy yours !

[pessimusdiscipulus]

Thank you both for your responses! It's a bummer I'll never know who made it specifically, but I'm glad I snagged one.

[Bo Bo Olson]

What counts is that it writes well. Glad it's semi-flex.

Interesting it's a B nib, often such nibs are marked 1st qual.

 

Many of the 120 makers, used parts from the major pen makers, and sold a made up pen, to the newest thing, the local Department store; or the local pen shops.

 

Sometimes Department stores had bigger manufactures make them pens with their names on it, like the Dutch Akkermann's had Osmia make pens labeled Akkermann.

 

Your pen looks mid-late 30's, because of the tall Finial.It is also well buffered for the time.

 

MB had at various times, some 30-40 sub brands, with out any MB brand mark to stay in the lower price range. Ideal don't ring any bells there, but I'm not really up on on the sub-brands MB made.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[pessimusdiscipulus]

Since you said that it might be an MB sub-brand, I just checked if it was made of "precious resin" and lo and behold, it glows red when I hold it up to my iphone's flashlight. Crazy stuff!

[Azuniga]

I have exactly the same pen, with the same nib.

 

Now, I am far from an expert but in my notes on German pens I have it as related to Matador from which I have an example of Ideal / Matador with an Ideal nib... The typography used in the Matador is the same as this Ideal here (I have shown the Matador Ideal in The Matador Thread in this same section of the FPN)

 

In relation to what PaulS writes I have enlisted so far 202 German pens from the twenties... but I have been told at the German shows that it is still far too short.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Azuniga