A Parker Challenger

[GlenV]

Cool 😎 Ron I think about that too and ties to the 20th centurys history.... a couple pens that I was able to (I think) identify the owner makes them interesting kinda too far maybe ha

[inkstainedruth]

This is why I'm not freaked out about engraved pens the way some people are. I would have loved to track down info about the former owner of my Red Shadow Wave Vac, and then tried to find any of that person's heirs to show them that the pen was still being regularly used and loved. Because, after all -- if you're going to be buying vintage pens, the odds are good that you're NOT going to finding something NOS. It's going to be a used pen, and clearly at some point in its history someone cherished it for what it was -- a useful (and hopefully attractive) writing instrument.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[eharriett]

I've not got too many engraved pens, but I have a few. It's never bothered me. I also like sometimes I can get a better pen at a lower price sometimes.

 

My personal favorites are the ones with signatures

[Ron Z]

Richard Binder had an article about this in the Pennant a couple of years ago. He had tracked down their history, which made for interesting reading.

 

I tend to think of that as the pen's name. Mable Moses was my favorite.

[eharriett]

Hopefully, the back issue library will return one day so I can read that Was one of the main reasons I joined.

[Ron Z]

I know that they're working on it. Converting the old library data to one that works on a modern platform I understand has been challenging, partly because of the large amount of data.

[inkstainedruth]

Richard Binder had an article about this in the Pennant a couple of years ago. He had tracked down their history, which made for interesting reading.

 

I tend to think of that as the pen's name. Mable Moses was my favorite.

 

Yes, that's a *great* name! I love it!

I have 3 engraved pens. The Red Shadow Wave used to belong to someone named "W. J. BATES". The Wearever that someone at an antiques show gave me (on the grounds that he "couldn't sell it" -- his words, not mine... ) was engraved "SA MEYERS" and -- I think -- "OO"; I was able to trace to the name of a jewelry store in Canonsburg, PA, in the 1940s (the building more recently housed an antiques shop, but closed before I was able to take the pen down there to show them).

The third is a little pen I think might be a Wellsharp (the nib certainly is). It just has initials: "MW", IIRC (the pen is white marble celluloid but the engraving is colored in with black and is fairly large and obtrusive for such a little pen -- and I'm now wondering if it was some kid's pen and the parents were worried about it getting lost or stolen at school... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth