Please help identify this vintage pen

[OldTravelingShoe]

TL;DR: I made a few impulse buys in Delft, NL. I would appreciate any help identifying this one vintage fountain-pen. Details and my own feeble attempts to identify it follow, after photos. 

 

Figure 1. Full pen, with blind cap and cap removed. 

 

Figure 2. Nib zoom-in.

 

Figure 3. Push-button zoom-in. 

 

Figure 4. Cap and especially clip zoom-in.

 

Details:

1. I wanted for many months to explore the antique shops in the town nearby, Delft, the Netherlands. I took a chance on Saturday. 
2. I bought a handful of pens, all in the range 5-25€. The prices seem to me very good; for example, I acquired a Lamy 99 with 14k nib for <10€, which I believe is about 1/5th to 1/10th of the market value.
3. One of the pens (the expensive one at 25€) in particular is proving to be stubbornly misterious. If the cost ratio at point 2 holds, this should cost between 150€ and 250€. I do not care about the cost, but ut may help with its identification.
4. The body has "Brancas" engraved. I searched for this but there seems to be no such fountain pen company or brand. 
5. I suspect this is not the original clip. The clip goes too deeply inside, having a circumference (diameter) much smaller than that of the pen body or the screw-in finial on the cap. But, if it is, maybe it is an Omas pen. 

6. I believe the pen has a broken button filler. 

7. I believe the nib is not original to the pen. In any case, the nib is two-tone, and has engraved "REX" and the number "4" inside a star. I believe it is a steel, partially gold-plated nib. 

8. I suspect it is a vintage 1930s fountain pen. I also think 1920s-1940s could be the likeliest range. 

9. I checked the two versions of Andreas Lambrou's books I have at home,  "Füllfederhalter" (in German) and "Stylos d'Hier et d'Aujourd'hui" (in French). I also searched eBay as thoroughly as I could. I looked in particular for Montblanc, Soennecken, Omas, also Bohler, Matador, Rex. Lots of look-alikes, but nothing similar enough to stop my search. 

 

Many thanks for helping out! 

Edited March 20, 2022 by OldTravelingShoe
Added the engraving on the body. Clarified the engraving on thenib.

[DvdRiet]

That's a pretty pattern!! But I agree with you that the clip (which I've seen recently but can't remember what the brand was) and probably the nib are not original. The good news is that a lot of these little pens had fairly generic clips and many also had sourced nibs (Warranted, Bock, Degussa, Rupp, etc.) rather than branded, so finding proper-looking replacements would not be too hard, I don't think.

 

And in case you aren't familiar with button-fillers, this one most probably has an ossified ink sac inside, just like the lever-fillers. But with button-fillers, you have to go through the button first (and last). The sections are nearly always screwed on and quite likely gunked up and therefore stuck, requiring the application of careful heat to remove. But before you apply any heat and try to unscrew it, you will need to pull out the button and get the pressure bar out that way. If not, the pressure bar can become bent if it is stuck to the wall of the barrel by dried sac and ink. Once the pressure bar is out, you can unscrew the section from the barrel and clean it and replace the sac. You also have to be careful to re-assemble it the same reverse order, as the sac will become wrapped around the pressure bar if you try to screw it back in with the pressure bar already inside. In other words: place the sac, screw it back together, and only then insert the pressure bar through the button hole, then replace the button.

 

There are very good instructions and YouTube videos out there on how to do this exactly, including on Richard Binder's site. Or if you'd rather not (it's also a pain to source the sacs from the UK since Brexit), I have an address of someone here in NL that has fixed a couple of pens for me recently and who could probably fix it for you in a snap. (DM me if you'd like the contact info.)

[DvdRiet]

Oh, also, I've just sort of remembered: wasn't Rex a sub-brand of the Danish Penol? I don't know anything about them, just what I've seen in passing while trying to research early Diplomats, but I assume that would mean it is possible that this is a Rex pen by Penol and that the nib is indeed original. Worth looking into anyway...

[OldTravelingShoe]

Wow, this is amazing information, @DvdRiet! I didn't know any of this stuff. Many thanks. 

 

Now I have to figure out how to write a DM on FPN 😄 (I'm that new.) 

[OldTravelingShoe]

2 hours ago, DvdRiet said:

it is possible that this is a Rex pen by Penol and that the nib is indeed original

This is excellent and exciting information, @DvdRiet. Thank you!

 

I did a quick search and found the Penol Official History: already in the second row of pens, I see models 1018 and 1019 are button fillers with a similar shape and length to my currently unidentified pen. They and other models also have what I think of as extravagant textures with one dominant color mixed with black (celluloid?). There is at least some reasonable link. 

 

I am now wondering: do you know perhaps more about where I can find out more about this company and the Rex brand? 

[essayfaire]

17 minutes ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

Now I have to figure out how to write a DM on FPN 😄 (I'm that new.) 

Click the envelope next to the notification bell, then click the "compose new." 

[OldTravelingShoe]

1 minute ago, essayfaire said:

Click the envelope next to the notification bell, then click the "compose new." 

Thank you, @essayfaire, it worked! Different platform, still learning how to use it. 

[essayfaire]

24 minutes ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

Thank you, @essayfaire, it worked! Different platform, still learning how to use it. 

Glad to help!  None of the sites tend to be the way I would design them

[OldTravelingShoe]

6 minutes ago, essayfaire said:

None of the sites tend to be the way I would design them

Haha, great reply!