Swan Id Help Please

[spacecoastpenny]

I am currently going through my vintage fountain pens. I am going to put together 100 pens to sell. This is one of the pens I plan to sell. This is my Only Swan Mable Todd and I know nothing about it.

 

Please help me ID the pen. There are no markings on the end of barrel, only marking is a persons name. It measures 6" capped. Nib marked Mable Todd & Company, External. The clip has a 1915 patent date. The nib is rigged no flex. I could not find any photos on the internet with the 4 bands on the cap. Is this significant?

 

My questions: 

Date manufactured - my guess is 1920's

Model Number - Is External the model?

 

Thanks in advance, matt

 

[crescentfiller]

My questions: 

Date manufactured - my guess is 1920's

Model Number - Is External the model?

 

 

 "I could not find any photos on the internet ..."

 

Try searching using "ETERNAL"

[spacecoastpenny]

well that makes a difference, thanks!

[Greenie]

The black and gold banded pens are from the 1920s.  The barrels were all the same. No one seems to be sure if there was a regular numbering system to the caps or not. The numbers 142/xx or 144/xx is usually on the bottom of the barrel (with 2 and 4 for the nib size, and the xx for the pattern).  But the numbers themselves do not seem to consistently indicate the pattern.

 

Yours is a particularly beautiful one with alternating gold and rose gold bands.

 

These were not "Eternal" pens. The nib could be a contemporary replacement by someone preferring that nib, or swapped in any time in the las 100 years.

[Inkyways]

    As   @Greenie had added, it is true about eternal Pens.  There are  Swan pens listed by many sellers  as Swan  Eternal . I have  already a pen with No 6 Eternal Nibs. ( Eternal nib  is the biggest Sawn nib in the family) It is also the Hard nail nib ( Classified  as "Manifold  Nibs" in the pens/ dip pens  and ink world. It is the only vintage  pen I feel as if the contemporary fountain pens as it has no flex. 

[spacecoastpenny]

Thanks Greenie for the info. The nib doesn't look like it belong. The nib sets deep in the section.

 

Inkways, You are correct it is a Hard nail. no flex at all. Puts down a nice line though.

 

Thanks All,

 

[essayfaire]

On 2/20/2023 at 5:43 PM, Greenie said:

Yours is a particularly beautiful one with alternating gold and rose gold bands.

I think so, too.  I didn't know the pen but my immediate reactions was 1920s.

[spacecoastpenny]

essayfaire, Thanks, I think so as well. It puts down a nice line.