42, The Black & Red,

[rhr]

And this is about the Red Top, the reverse-Duofold type, the opposite color scheme of black with red tips, except that it preceded the Duofold. This type includes such pens as the German "Rouge et Noir", which is actually and more correctly a "Noir et Rouge". See Topic 1812 on Lion & Pen. Eugen Hahn and August Eberstein's UK patent no. 13,900 dating from June 15, 1907 is the patent for the solid-colored cap top of the "Rouge et Noir", at first solid red, but later a solid white top. The colored top helped to mark the top end of a safety eyedropper pen so that the user could keep the nib-end up in a pocket, but it quickly evolved into a company emblem. The pens went on to become the "Montblanc" fountain pens of the Simplo Filler Pen Co. in Germany, and the emblem evolved first into a six-pointed, rounded-tipped, red star, but when Montblanc trademarked the emblem in Germany on Jan 14, 1913, it was a six-pointed, rounded-tipped, white star. Trademark no. 839,016 is the modern renewal of the trademark in the US. Pen collectors sometimes irreverently call it the "white bird splat", or the "Montblanc splat". That makes the "Rouge et Noir" emblem a "red splat". ;~) Patent no. 766,560, Otto E. Weidlich, "Fountain-Pen", Aug 2, 1904, is for a matchstick filler marketed as a "Simplo Filler" well before Montblanc used the name. Trademark no. 118,721, David T. Kaufmann, "Trade-Mark For Fountain-Pens", Sept 25, 1917, is for the word "Star" and a six-pointed star, used by Weidlich-Simpson Pen Co. since Oct 30, 1914, but this time well after Montblanc used the splat, and perhaps another case of one company riding on the coattails of another.

 

The Parker "Nurse Pen", a short #20 button filler with Jack Knife Safety cap and washer-clip, BHR or BCHR cap and barrel, and RHR blind cap and cap top, would have been the exact opposite of the Duofold, if it would have had a RHR section. Some of the Ormiston & Glass stylographs in the series called "The Kennel Stylo Pens", namely the "Terrier" and "Bulldog" stylos, were available in both red-with-black-tips and black-with-red-tips versions, although they were called "Black & Tan". Trademark no. 129,695, Mar 9, 1920, is for the name "Red Top", used by the Evans Dollar Pen Co. since July 1, 1917. Evans also had trademark no. 129,696 for a white disk on the end of the cap, issued on Mar 9, 1920 and used since Aug 11, 1919, and trademark no. 138,001 is for the name "White Top", issued on Dec 14, 1920 and also used since Aug 11, 1919. Salz Bros. also made fountain pens called the "Red Top", and their trademark no. 155,280 is for the name "Black and White", issued on May 23, 1922 and used since Sept 1, 1921. The Diamond Point Pen Co. also made a black hard rubber "Tucolor Fill E-Z" pen with red hard rubber cap and barrel tips, and there is also the black hard rubber Mabie Todd red-winged "Blackbird" with its red hard rubber lever.

 

John C. Wahl's trademark no. 125,547 is for "Leads For Mechanical Pencils" with their ends painted red, issued on May 20, 1919 and used by the Wahl Co. since Oct 29, 1918. Trademark no. 159,571, "Leads Suitable For Use In Mechanical Pencils", issued on Sept 26, 1922 and used since Feb 2, 1920, is for an image of the imprints for the little metal boxes for the Wahl Co.'s "Red Top" Eversharp pencil leads, the boxes with the top or cover painted red to mimic the leads themselves. And patent no. 1,428,195 issued to John C. Wahl and Peter G. Jacobson on Sept 5, 1922, and assigned to the Wahl Co., is for the familiar little "Red Top" metal box made with dovetail joints, a nice little example of joinery in metal.

 

Trademark no. 162,063, Richard Wightman's "Trade-Mark For Fountain Pens" issued on Dec 5, 1922 is for an image of a pen that indicates that the end of the barrel is red. It was advertized as the pen with the "red-headed filling pump", and was used by the Dunn Pen Co. since September 1920. Actually, instead of a red head, it has a red bottom. ;~) I guess it depends upon whether the pen is capped, or is being written with without posting the cap. There is also trademark no. 165,927, Aniceto Visitacion, "Fountain Pens", Mar 20, 1923, for the "Blue-Red Fountain Pen" symbol, used since Nov 4, 1920.

 

And lastly, here are a few more wooden-pencil trademarks for partly-red pencils. Trademark no. 143,316, Harry Dailey, "Lead Pencils", May 31, 1921, is for the name "Red & Black" on a red-and-black pencil, used by John Dixon Co. since 1905. Trademark no. 338,713, Edwin M. Berolzheimer, "Lead Pencils", Sept 15, 1936, is for the name "Red Streak", used by the Eagle Pencil Co. since Mar 17, 1936.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

 

If you want to perform the trademark searches, simply cut and paste, or type the trademark numbers into the search window in the Trademark Document Retrieval Portlet.

Edited July 17, 2010 by rhr