Lamy Safari Charcoal 1St Edition W Germany Barrel Imprint?

[Uffuffa]

Have just seen a first generation charcoal Safari being sold on the bay for an inordinate sum but am very interested in the W Germany imprint, which Ive never seen before. Does anyone have anything similar to this imprint on their Savanna, Terracotta and/or Umbra from the time please? Photo attached.

[jungkind]

I have a Savanna and a Terracotta with a similar imprint, they both came supposedly from someone who bought them when Lamy first started selling pens in the US. One theory is that this imprint was added for export because the early pens were sold in Germany without any hint where they came from. They were without the W. Germany on the barreltop, that later versions had.

[Uffuffa]

I have a Savanna and a Terracotta with a similar imprint, they both came supposedly from someone who bought them when Lamy first started selling pens in the US. One theory is that this imprint was added for export because the early pens were sold in Germany without any hint where they came from. They were without the W. Germany on the barreltop, that later versions had.

Wow - I’d love to see photos if you wouldn’t mind please? I thought my Savanna/terracotta collection was pretty comprehensive but this has thrown that theory out...! Presumably there are no other differences that you’ve found, aside from the side imprint?

[jungkind]

I am travelling, as soon I am back I will post some pictures

[christof]

cool! never seen this before...

c.

[jchch1950]

cool! never seen this before...

c.

+1. .

[jungkind]

Sorry for the delay, here are the photos

 

 

[Uffuffa]

Wow...! Amazing!!! Thank you you so much for sharing. How on earth did you get these? Im going to have to go on the hunt.....but Ive no idea where to start!

[WLSpec]

That's cool

[jungkind]

There was another thread regarding this imprint

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/319499-safari-savannah-green-barrel-imprint/

[memphisthumper]

I have a dark gray Lamy Safari with "W GERMANY" stamped on the end cap of the body.  When did Lamy do this?

This on the round cap/plug at the end of the body not the body itself.

Edited March 3, 2021 by memphisthumper

[Uffuffa]

On 3/3/2021 at 1:01 PM, memphisthumper said:

I have a dark gray Lamy Safari with "W GERMANY" stamped on the end cap of the body.  When did Lamy do this?

This on the round cap/plug at the end of the body not the body itself.

Hi there! The dark grey you have is probably a W.Germany Umbra/S2. Yours would have been released at some point between 1981 and 1989. When reunification occurred, the W.Germany imprint on the barrel end was replaced with the Germany imprint. Hope that helps

[memphisthumper]

Thanks.

My other Lamy fountain pens have GERMANY.

Also, this pen does not have the two slits for the converter pins as my other pens do.

I also have a VISTA with a squeeze converter and not the screw type ink converter.

Thanks for the information.

Have a good one.

Jerry

[Uffuffa]

I have what I think is an interesting update on this style of barrel imprint, which I now refer to as Generation 1.5 (respecting the generations 1-to-4 that @haywoody carefully first defined).
 

Since @jungkind very kindly posted the beautiful photos above, I’ve found other examples of these pens. I believe they will exist in the four main forms of Safari, being FP, BP, MP and RB. I have not yet seen an RB with this imprint though, but I’m sure it will exist. 

Umbra/S2:

@cbbp posted a photo of the S2/Umbra in MP with this stamp in another thread (photo also copied here) and I posted the FP at the start of this thread

 

Terrarot/Terracotta

@jungkind posted FP example as above

 

Savanna

@jungkind posted FP example as above 

 

Matte Textured Alpin

I have seen MP and BP with this barrel stamp (photos uploaded - you can see the imprint on the BP if you look very carefully; the MP is clearer)

 

So it seems that the colours with this stamp were the above four. 
 

Also I think this debases the previous theory that the Matte Textured Alpin was released only due to a Japanese commission back in the 1980s. Instead, I think the matte Alpin was released also in America as the side barrel imprints are only on US Safari releases in the early 1980s. 
 

Anyways, hope that is of interest to my fellow Safari collectors 😊