Friday, April 9, 2021

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 178

A couple more of Christopher's newest acquisitions, and the story behind them...

 (photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)

Christopher: "I ran across a set of Sheaffer Sentinel Ballpoints, which belonged to two gentlemen who founded a jewelry store, which is still running. Both are long gone since their business was established at the beginning of the 1930s, but their names remain imprinted on these two somewhat matching Sheaffer ballpoints. 

There is something rather special about one of these pens and it was Rene who lent credence to that. The Sheaffer Sentinel model was one of their White dot line of pens, but one ballpoint is missing the White dot. Also, Sheaffer placed a tiny bump at the top of their ballpens from that period to identify them as ballpens (to differentiate them from their fountain pens); this tiny indicator, although apparent on the one White Dot pen, is missing on the ballpoint without the White dot. Otherwise, as you will see, the pens are identical. 

The brother who put his name on their jewelry shop also has his name personalized on the White Dot pen with the tiny clip bump. So, Rene figured that a Sheaffer salesperson visited their jewelry shop with samples and the one brother got the non White Dot, bumpless dealer’s salesperson prototype sample, while the other got the full meal deal. Regardless, and once restored, they are a very attractive related set."


What a handsome pair of vintage ballpoints! Around 2013, Sheaffer came out with a new 'Sentinel' ballpoint. That pen, however uses a "click" mechanism and somewhat resembles a Parker 'Jotter', so there is no mistaking the two Sheaffer 'Sentinel' ballpoint models :)

Our thanks to Christopher for sharing his new finds with us!

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