Help with the age of my Onoto?

[kthdsn]

Hello, I wondered if anyone can help me work out how old my new (old) pen is. I've never bought an old pen before so I know basically nothing about them. I collect tarot cards and picked up a few De La Rue playing card decks then discovered they made pens and ordered myself one on ebay. It says "ONOTO" PATENT SELF FILLING PEN DE LA RUE LONDON on the barrel which is 82mm long, so seems to be a 1000 model, but it doesn't have the over feed nib.  The nib says DE LA RUE ONOTO LONDON 3. This is as much as I know about it. I haven't tried using it yet, but the ebay listing said it was in working order.

[WhiteStarPens]

From the barrel imprint I'd be inclined to believe it is an early Onoto c. 1905-13 but with the more conventional nib.

 

Very briefly, the plunger mechanism patent was bought by the company in c. 1905 and thus the Onoto Patent Self Filler Pens were born.

 

Pens made up to 1913 would've had a slightly different 14ct nib and the over-under feed type. 

I have one of the earlier patent self fillers myself c. 1912 - please see photos.

I believe the very first Onoto branded pens would have the gold over-under feeds similar to those employed on the Victorian (1890s) Pelican Self-Feeding pen, which was an early De La Rue line of pens. But I don't think they were around for long before vulcanite feeds were introduced.

 

That being said, it's possible this pen was sold in it's current form during the Great War. It's likely the older style barrels had the new nibs installed during the transition period.

 

Later in the 1920s the design moves away from short caps and concave 'nib holders' (the section to the modern pen enthusiast!) and design changes, perhaps reluctantly, with the fashion for flat-topped and fairly streamlined pens. Lever fillers were introduced and screw and slip-capped varieties, available in jade, red and blue etc became available. The plunger mechanism pens remaining a mainstay. More colourful pens were released over the next few decades culminating in the gorgeous mesh pattered Magnas and the pretty 1950s lever pens.

 

I'd date your pen from around the time of The Great War (1914-1918). If anyone knows differently and my chronology is a bit off, please educate us!

[kthdsn]

Thank you, that's really helpful and very interesting!