Sheaffer Desk Pen

[Tevfik]

Good evening all,

 

This is my first post on FPN but I've been using fountain pens for close to a decade now. Last year I found a Sheaffer desk pen at an antique shop, however it did not have it's Desk Pen Holder it. The pen is lever filled, I replaced the sac and polished up the pen, and has a white dot with a dual colored 14k nib. 

My question is: what model is it and which desk pen holder do I need to look out for to purchase?

 

Section Image

Nib Image

Entire Pen Image

I absolutely love the pen and how it writes, I've looked for a desk pen holder for a year now so I decided to finally ask everyone else about it.
I have attached a couple pictures of the pen.

 

 

Thank you all.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Tevfik
Upload Proper Image Files

[joss]

Great pen and these are excellent writers indeed. Nice pictures too but it would be good to drag the pictures into your post, making them instantly visible for the readers, instead of adding links to an external webpage which may also present safety issues.

 

The slanted section front is typical for the Sheaffer desk pens that came with the Dry-Proof "bell socket". These sockets were introduced in 1940 and were probably sold until the introduction of the Sheaffer Triumph desk pens (in 1945? do not know exactly). The bell on top of the socket could be turned right or left to lock or unlock the desk pen in the socket. The bell socket looks like this, you need the black version:

 

 

I do not know the exact model number of your pen. I think that there were three models in the Dry-Proof series of desk pens: 3D, 5D and 74D. The two tone gold nib and the white dot may indicate that your pen is the top model (74D) but the absence of the decorative gold ring in the centre of the barrel is a bit odd. What is the barrel imprint on your pen?

[Tevfik]

Thank you so much for the advice and wonderful feedback about the pen!

The biggest issue I had with identifying the pen was the lack of the gold ring, so now I'm even more curious as to why it does not have one!

The barrel states:
W.A. Sheaffer Pen Co.
Fort Madison Iowa U.S.A
Made in U.S.A.

[Roger W.]

Joss has the right socket.  These were introduced in 1940 and used through 1942 when they were replaced with the screw in type pen.  No desk pens are advertised again until 1945 when they advertise that the faults of pre-war pens are gone.  Desk pens are shown bandless in 1942.

 

Roger W.

[joss]

Thank you for your input Roger! Virtual all info that I have was actually distilled from your posts here at FPN, especially from your impressive "Sheaffer desk set of the week" series (see these listed in this FPN post, for anybody interested in Sheaffer desk pens).

 

I was not aware about the 1942 bandless desk pen but I now see them pictured in 1942 advertisements, such as these from PenHero's ad gallery:

www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Sheaffer/Ads/SheafferAd1942_1280_04.jpg

www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Sheaffer/Ads/SheafferAd1942_1280_03.jpg

 

If the screw-in type Sheaffer desk pen with barrel threads was introduced in 1942 then I guess that the OP's bandless and thread-less Sheaffer desk is quite rare (made in 1942 only)?

[Roger W.]

Joss;

 

In going through the original answer it looks like Sheaffer stopped making desk bases during the war.  I don't see a lot of "1942" sets and they are different from 1940-41 as they typically have minimal real metal but, pot metal covered in plastic.  While there is no catalog you can take the model numbers in 1941 and see a continuation of similar letter codes with advancing numbers.  When I can find these with labels I can expand what was available after 1941.  The 1942's may have been sold until the newly advertised 1945 models.  So that is an open question.  Did Sheaffer continue selling desk bases of the 1942 type all of the way through 1945?  They did not advertise desk bases from 1943 through early 1945 though they likely did sell them.  My guess is that the "1942s", which are in limited numbers, were sold primarily in 1942 but, in small numbers through early 1945.  Therefore the adoption of the screw in type is likely 1945.  Sometime I may find more information in the Sheaffer archives.

 

Roger W. 

[joss]

Hi Roger,

 

I did not fully realize that the central gold band disappeared because of the war restrictions on the use of metals. In an attempt to find more info on the 1943-45 Sheaffer years, I went through publicly available (archive.org) issues of "Office Appliances", a monthly journal in which pen manufacturers advertised specifically for retailers of office supplies. From the early 1920s to the late 1930s Sheaffer regularly advertised pens, pencils and Skrip but from 1940 onwards fountain pens and pencils disappeared completely from the Office Appliances ads which then solely focussed on Skrip ink and pencil leads. This indicates, or may confirm, the notion that fountain pens (incl desk pens and desk bases) and pencils were scarcely available to stationary owners and thus also to the general public. In later war years they were possibly available only for army and government personnel. This seems to be in contrast to the advertisements in magazines for the general public (Life, Esquire, Collier's, ...) which continued to show Sheaffer pens, albeit regularly in the context of the war ("Write Him Letters") and thus also linked to Skrip ink.

 

I found an interesting article in Office Appliances December 1944 listing the official "ceiling retail price" of every model of pen and pencil that was sold by any American pen manufacturer from November 1944 onwards. The list was issued in October 1944 by the American Office of Price Administration and indicates that three models of Sheaffer desk pens (#300, #500 and #800) were available in mid to late 1944. The list is included in the pictures below. 

 

In respect to the screw in type socket: patent number 142.391 for the Sheaffer Triumph desk pen was applied for in November 1944 and granted in Sept 1945 so it seems likely that the Triumph desk pen, and the accompanying screw-in type socket, did not appear before early to mid 1945? Which is in accordance with the first Triumph desk pen advertisement in LIFE (May 1945).

 

I realize that all this may be old news for a Sheaffer veteran, if so it might eventually be of interest to others. Going through the old magazines was in interesting travel into the past.

 

 

 

[Roger W.]

Joss;

 

Thank you for the patent information - that pushes those into late '44.  Therefore, the '42 type must have been what was available through most of the war.  These were not advertised and these are not seen in great numbers.  Desk sets are primarily a prewar item to be sure as post war desk sets are rarely innovative.  The Lenox collection in 1959 is a key exception to this.  So I'm on board with the '42's being the desk sets that were available through the war.  Now I need to go through the war info in the archives to see what they say about desk sets.

 

Roger W.

[Tevfik]

Thank you both for the stunning amount of information. it's taken me a few days to go through it all and read up on it all. It's very interesting that the metal bands went away for the war and that it's a very specific and remarkable way to 'date' a pen. It interested me greatly that it did not have a metal band and now it all makes sense as to why, and it makes me love this pen even more so now than I did before. I am very proud to have this pen in my collection, now onto finding a holder for it so it can have the proper home. 

Thank you again, I really do appreciate all of your insight and time in passing along this information and the resources. 

[Zookie]

Hi Tevfik! I just found my first "in the wild" Sheaffer desk pen, a beautiful pen! It was in the second photo that Joss posted.I

A nice brown with the Lifetime nib. Now to get it up and running again 😎

[Tevfik]

Hello Zookie!
That's awesome to hear! I have a Brown Sheaffer Admiral and I love it! I love brown pens, but I rarely see them. I'm glad you found your first Sheaffer out in the wild!