Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 551

I recently got an email from our fellow Vancouver Pen Club member Kevin W. During the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kevin sent in some nice reviews of pens he'd acquired (and some cool ink storage solutions, too). I hadn't heard from him in quite a while, though, so it was good to get a new email from him. Kevin recently acquired some fountain pens and wanted to share them with us (thank you, Kevin!), so without further ado, here they are!

 Kevin writes:

"I recently acquired a few specimens from Parker’s late 1930’s to 1950’s lineup to help fill out my collection. A bit of a photo-bomb, but the same day I acquired them I also received my Asvine C80."

 (photo courtesy of Kevin ~ click on image to enlarge)He continues:

"Left to right, we have:

• Asvine C80. With large No 8 M nib. Lovely brown/gold resin. Not just injection moulded. Chatoyance, but not gaudy. Cartridge/convertor. Smooth, non-obtrusive threads above section. Really does have the feel of a pen a lot more expensive than it is.
• Parker Arrow. Only made in Canada. 1955. A bit of an oddball pen with gold Vacumatic “arrow” nib, Parker 51 cap, Parker 21 barrel. Sometimes dismissed as a Frankenpen, but was a proper production model for its short life.  https://parkerpens.net/arrow.html
• Canadian Parker 21 Custom with “octanium” (8-metal alloy) nib and 1/10 12K gold filled cap (1952-?). https://parkerpens.net/parker21.html
• Parker VS. Button filler with see through feed. 1946-48 (button filler discontinued for remaining 1948-49 production) https://parkerpens.net/parkervs.html
• Challenger DeLuxe (three bands on cap) pen/pencil set from Q2 1937. https://parkerpens.net/challenger.html 
  
  

**Fellow Vancouver Pen Club members**: If you have any new pen-related acquisitions you'd like to share, please email your write ups and/or photos of them to our club's Gmail address, and I'll post them on our website. 
Thank you in advance!
~Maja

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 550

Happy BC Day!

This is another new acquisition belonging to Christopher...and it's over 100 years old! Although this particular fountain pen wasn't made in Canada, the manufacturer set up a Canadian subsidiary in 1925 and then...Well, I'll let Christopher tell the story 😀…

He writes:
"Eclipse, with its colourful international past, has always fascinated me. Although the company had its original roots in the United States, in turn, it opening up a successful operation in Canada, was able --based on tremendous marketing sales-- to buy out the US main base and is, to my mind, a unique business accolade! But the pen which I am currently reviewing is circa the Great War, and thus pertains to the American Eclipse production. Evidently in the early days, Eclipse sought out and used Warranted nibs. For their less expensive models, these Warranted nibs were steel and gold plated. But for their more uptown models, the Warranted 14K Gold and Warranted No.1, 14K Gold nibs were duly applied. To this end, the jet-black grip section in this pen I am expanding on, does support an upper end 14K Gold Warranted nib, but a flexy one at that. If. by chance. you are wondering just how to tell if a Warranted nib is a true 14K Gold one, the answer can be found by removing the nib from the section, and if it has the plating marking at that inside back end, it is just that. Still, I have as yet to find a Warranted No.1 marked nib that wasn't 14K Gold."

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

"This pen's finish is a lovely black 'bars and checkers' chased hard rubber with the barrel supporting a 14K Gold filled Eclipse style lever filler. At the business end, the pen's cap --which hides and protects the nib, feed and section-- is a lengthy, robin egg blue triple banded, extremely well-made pen part, which also comes with inside threading right out to the cap's opening. Subsequently, the unscrewing of the barrel takes a good number of turns. I should also draw attention to the cap's clip as being a very long tapered ball ended number sporting the company's branding, smartly running vertically down the center. There is also an Eclipse circled logo above this branding and below, a patent dating. This, in turn, is a good-sized pen measuring a full 7 inches posted, but caps back to just a tad under 6 inches. In closing, I can't think of a finer example of the Eclipse best and brightest to add to my vintage pen collection."

Thanks for sharing this one with us, Christopher!