Friday, November 15, 2024

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 534

More of Christopher's finds! In this case, it’s a vintage pen and a very short-lived model, like the one in the previous blog post. He picked this one up a while ago, but forgot to log it and send me his review for this blog post. Better late than never! 

Christopher:
“I really think that for a lot of its products, Wahl Eversharp set a very high-quality standard. A standard that even Kenneth Parker did not turn a blind eye to. But in the late 1940s, the writing was on the wall and the writing division of the Eversharp company would soon be in another owners' hands. Still, that interest in quality products was very much in place as the 1940s came to an end. It was during the 1940s that the Eversharp company reached out to a very successful industrial designer, Raymond Loewy. He had even put his design stamp on the redesigning of the Coco Cola bottle and a new line of Eversharp pens, so he was the perfect solution. But as much as he brought the Eversharp Symphony line of Eversharp products into the limelight, there is speculation that he was not involved with another top-end Eversharp model at the time, the Envoy. This particular pen was to be the flagship of the entire production of Eversharp pens in 1948, but only stuck around in production for one calendar year.”

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

“The overall design was extremely streamlined and somewhat thinner than the other Eversharp models. The finish selected for barrel and cap was 1/10th 14K gold filled, but the grip section, which was quite long, was rendered in jet black plastic. It was a lever filler pen that sported a superb 14K Gold nib. The cap followed the streamlining, but with a long clip with the company branding running vertically down its center. A further beautification to round out the gold-filled finish comprised of long thin vertical lines on both the cap and barrel. The barrel accepts a slip-on cap, which seems to be machined quite well to be a smooth and exacting fit. I cannot say just how impressed I am with this vintage pen and because it is the year of my birth, it will hold a special meaning in my vintage pen collection.”

In his email to me, Christopher added that the pen's original price (in 1948) was $15 USD, which —according to an online calculator— is about $200 USD today. Our thanks to Christopher for sharing it with us!

Have a great weekend,
~Maja

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