Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 89

Back to vintage pens we go now with two vintage Sheaffer fountain pens recently acquired by René...

René: "In 1949 Sheaffer introduced the Touchdown filling system and quickly applied it to their line and replaced the older filling systems with it. They did, however, keep the old models' names and general proportions. By 1950 they redesigned the pens and introduced the more commonly found Thin Model (TM) Touchdown pens, while still keeping the classic names."

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

 

Sheaffer "Fat Model" Valiant 

"This particular pen is one of what is now known as the "fat model" pens of that short period of Touchdown pens before the Thin Models were introduced. "

 

"One of the signatures of this period, other than the larger girth, is that many of the nibs still carried serial numbers, meant for warranty purposes (though some very early TM pens apparently have them too). This one is the Valiant, which is a white dot model with the cylindrical, two tone (gold nib with partial platinum mask) "Triumph" nib."

 
 

"When it came to me, the Touchdown mechanism was still intact and functional, though the sac was twisted (I untwisted it) and the piston is still rather stiff. The odd thing about this pen is that the cap appears to be a Statesman cap, rather than the Valiant one, which should have a wider cap band with two engraved rings. Discussing it with VPCer Christopher, we decided that likely it was a factory mismatch from leftover parts, perhaps from a slightly later period just after the switchover to the TM models - not a rare occurrence in pen history."

 

"Here's the "Fat model" Valiant with another pen I also just acquired, a lovely burgundy TM Statesman (also a Touchdown filler, but unrestored), for thickness comparison"

What a handsome duo! Congratulations to René on acquiring these classic vintage fountain pens, and our thanks to him for sharing his new finds with us :) If you'd like to read more about these Sheaffer models, René recommends this article on Penhero.com - "Sheaffer Early Touchdown Pens 1949-1950".