Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 56

And now, another lovely vintage writing instrument recently acquired by René--his rolled-gold metal overlay Eclipse fountain pen...

(all photos courtesy of René ~ please click on images to enlarge)

René: "As many of you know I collect Eclipse pens. The Eclipse company was started in San Francisco in 1903, and eventually moved operations to New York. Depending on where you set your marker, a branch of Eclipse was started in Canada in 1925-28. The Great Depression took a toll on the American branch of the company, and it (ironically) eventually became mostly under the control of its subsidiary branch in Canada by the mid to late 40s. The company lasted until the 60s before disbanding."

"Like many other companies of the early to mid twentieth century, Eclipse also supplied pens for other companies and made several no-name pens and sub-models, including Keene, Ever-Ready, and Marxton. Some tell-tale marks of the Eclipse brand are the Klein clip (sort of a clip clipping on a clip which clips into the pen cap), which they patented in 1923, the suspiciously Waterman-like lever box (except that the top is U-shaped, instead of having a semi-circular piece of metal end), and the laurel wreath on a circular lever end (though some other companies had something similar as well)."

"This is my third rolled-gold metal overlay Eclipse pen, but my first that was made in Canada. It has a pseudo-checkerboard pattern with an personalized inscription that says, "NDB." It needed a lot of metal polishing and cleaning, but, like the other two rolled-gold overlay pens, it cleaned up beautifully, though this one has some slight cosmetic damage to the metal, close to the section, and a hairline crack on the cap metal from the lip (which, thankfully, is just on the metal overlay, so it's not a structural issue, and it's rather hidden by the chasing pattern). It dates from the later 20s (after 1925, of course), and possesses the Klein clip. It is yet to be restored."

"The nib is a Warranted nib (like my other two Eclipse overlays) which appears to be rather broad, with some flex to it, and is Canadian."

(closeup of the pen's Klein clip mentioned above)

For more information on the history of the Eclipse Pen and Pencil Company, check out this website and this one, too. For lots of great photos of various Eclipse fountain pens and pencils, head on over to this page.

René-thanks so much for another great contribution to our virtual "show & tell".
VPC members--please keep those photos of your newest pen-related acquisitions coming! It doesn't matter if your new pen cost $5 or $500---we'd love to see it :)