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Postal fountain pen


GlenV

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When looking for a pen, I’m always drawn to early American pens that are interesting and the Postal pen has been on my list of those. I feel lucky to have found this one. 
This brand was sold in a unique way, only marketed direct to consumers by adverts in popular magazines, that one could order from the company by mail, and said “send no money now “ but try out the pen first. 
It was sold in 2 sizes only, with most examples being black celluloid with a transparent celluloid barrel for ink, and a bulb filling method, nibs are good ones I’m not sure what company made them, perhaps the Bay State gold pen co.??

You can see how big the larger size is here compared to a full size Parker Duofold of similar vintage. Cleaning the celluloid reservoir was done carefully as known to be fragile and often crazed by light after all these years like the clear parts of a 100 year Waterman. Another bit of luck this one is not. I wiggled out the nib and pushed out the section with a stiff plastic tube that fit over the long breather tube so could clean from both ends. 
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Regards, Glen

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Enjoyed the pictures and short history - thank you!

 

Didn't Binder sell a recreation of this at one time?

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Thank you, I actually was not aware of the New Postal pen by Binder until I started researching this pen, it was also from an old post here by him that he mentioned how to remove the nib,  his reproduction looks really nice. The original nib is hard to beat but one could put in a really cool replacement for the new version I would think.

Regards, Glen

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Cool FP. Thanks for posting and showing the disassembled pen.

 

I seem to remember reading about Postal pens before Binder's webpage existed. Digging through back  copies ofThe Pennant has been fruitless. Anyone have an idea of what I'm thinking of?

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This reproduction of a Postal Pen advertisement turned up while searching for that article I remember reading. It's from the February 1989 issue of Pen Fancier's Magazine. There's no information on the source, and the magazine lists the date of the advertisement as January 1931.

 

PostalPen1931ad.thumb.jpg.ccec165df216dec012e5905eabef8b22.jpg

 

I'm still looking for that article and am now wondering if it wasn't something on USENET back in the Stone Age.

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That is an interesting ad, since so different with clip than I have seen but here at "old fountain pens just for fun" there is one similar pen but doesn't say Postal on the clip like

the above ad.   DSCN6510.JPG

Regards, Glen

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The article I was thinking of is not as old as I thought. David Shepherd wrote Postal Reservoir Pen, which appeared in two parts in the Journal of the Writing Equipment Society, No. 96, Spring 2013, and No. 97, Summer 2013. Shepherd acknowledges Richard  Binder's help with the  history and for providing photos of Bonded FPs, a Postal sub-brand.

 

One thing I'd completely forgotten is that Postal produced a Lever Filler. Shepherd has a photo of a solid black LF, which he states is of later production with no additional information. The LF in the photo is capped, so one can't tell if the section is solid or visualated. In the caption, Shepherd wonders whether Postal became disenchanted with the bulb filler.

 

Thanks, again, for posting. Now, I'm looking for a Postal LF and a mechanical  pencil. There's always so  much more to learn.

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Cool, thank you. I really like going down the rabbit hole on pen manufacturers, I suspect Postal was just another small company that didn't get through the lean years of the depression. 

Regards, Glen

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On 10/22/2024 at 12:25 PM, GlenV said:

That is an interesting ad, since so different with clip than I have seen but here at "old fountain pens just for fun" there is one similar pen but doesn't say Postal on the clip like

the above ad.   DSCN6510.JPG

That's an impressive collection of Postals. Color me jealous as someone who has yet to see their first Postal in person. 

 

The different barrel colors are intriguing. I wonder whether they came that way or is it a combination of age and staining?

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Congratulations :) . That's a lovely pen.


Around the same time Gate City Pens rebooted the "New Postal Fountain Pen" there was also the "New Dunn Fountain Pen". Another single pen company from around the same time.
Other than the filling system which is said to hold enough ink for a month ("A Regular camel for ink goes a month without a drink" is printed on most of their adverts) their sections and feeds looks fairly similar. Just wondering if there is any link between the two .

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