Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 496

We're in the middle of a long weekend and I'm still working on the blog post about our May meeting so, in the meantime, enjoy this pen review sent in by Christopher! (thank you, Christopher :)

Christopher writes: "Just when you feel that you have exhausted any hope of finding something new and interesting in the way of vintage pens, along comes something that you just did not expect. Such was the way with a pen that I just ran across and, in picking it up for a more careful examination, was blown away."

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

"The new acquisition has all the bells and whistles. Starting with an exquisite artfully chased finish on black vulcanized rubber right in the center of it all on the barrel is a good sized triangle with the model name ‘Tucolor’. Then, on either side of this triangle, are the words Diamond and Point. Below this manufacturer’s name --again, on either side of the triangle-- are the words and letters, Fill and E-Z. The cap sports a tapered to a ball end nickel plated clip with the company name running vertically down the center as New Diamond P.P. The word New, also being neatly presented in a triangle. Above the clip, the cap is topped off with an attractive deep forest green end piece. While below the clip is quite a wide 14K Gold filled banding. This pen is a lever filler which takes quite a large rubber ink sack. The grip section is a long one and, in turn, houses a beautiful and flexy No. 2, 14 Karat Warranted Gold nib. All in all, a fine, great quality writing instrument that posts well at all of 6 ¼ inches but caps back to a pocketable 5 inches accordingly.

The Diamond Point company hailed from New York City and was established before the beginning of the last century. It began by having its pens made in job lots but in time started to produce its own with a focus on quality. In the 1930s, it moved away from black hard rubber to produce fountain pens with brilliant coloured plastic finishes. But, at the same time, it changed ownership and rebranded itself, dropping the word Point and adding the word New with a double P to replace the word dropped. The rebranding was to distinguish the new ownership from the old. Unfortunately, as time went on into the 1940s the quality was sadly lacking until the company closed during the 1950s.

This pen, fortunately, was made at a time during the late 1920s and just before the market crash on Wall Street in October of 1929 when the quality standard of Diamond Point was at an all time high. Just a beautiful item and a strong addition to my vintage pen collection."