Friday, June 24, 2011

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Engraved Pens ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thanks to all who brought examples of pens with names or initials engraved to our last meeting on June 16th. Our next meeting will be held on July 21st at the Vancouver Public Library's Oakridge branch (please see previous blog post for details).

I took a couple of quick shots of a few of the engraved pens I brought with me and wanted to share them with you (click on photos to enlarge). Normally my photographs don't turn out this good, but I had some lovely late afternoon light to help me.



The top photograph shows three vintage Sheaffers (from top to bottom: a carmine-striped Sheaffer Balance, a black Sheaffer Touchdown 'Autograph' and a marine green Sheaffer Balance 'Autograph', with their previous owners' names engraved on them.




The second photo shows two modern ballpoints (a lovely Parker Classic ballpoint in the Milleraies pattern with the name of our brother-in-law's late uncle engraved on it, and a Sheaffer '300' ballpoint with my own name engraved ---a 2010 Christmas gift from myself to myself :)

There is an excellent article on PenHero.com about the Sheaffer 'Autograph' and 'Signature' pens here . After purchasing one of these pen models from a Sheaffer dealer, the buyer signed a card with his/her signature on it, and then the dealer sent the pen & card to the Sheaffer pen company to be engraved by their specially-trained personnel. The result was a signature as close to the original as possible. I have a large Sheaffer flat-top with an 'Autograph' band, but its former owner chose not to have his signature engraved on it, opting for his name to be embossed on the barrel. To each his own, I guess! I personally love the look of an engraved signature (or nicely engraved initials) on a vintage fountain pen.

No comments: