Come Across A Pen Manufacturer Never Heard Of

[fhhcpen]

I came across an item on eBay showing a claimed to be rare fountain pen with the imprints:

 

On barrel

"THE SUNBEAM"

"THE NORTH BRITISH PEN CO LIVERPOOL"

 

On nib

"WARRANTED"

"14 CT"

"(a word I cannot fully identify due to the nib curve)"

 

Please educate me.

Edited October 28, 2011 by fhhcpen

[rhosygell]

Since the only Liverpool based pen maker that I'm aware of would be Curzons / Summit I would assume that it would have been produced under contract by them for a retailer e.g Lewis' in Liverpool. Warranted 14ct on the nib sounds correct.

[fhhcpen]

Thanks rhosygell for your input.

Was that a common practice back in 1910s UK?

If that was the case, would the actual manufacturer still be shown anywhere on the pen?

Edited October 28, 2011 by fhhcpen

[Beechwood]

Not usually, sometimes just Made in England, or completely unmarked

[rhr]

I was going to ask for some pictures, but is the pen in this Ebay auction the pen in question? There are some nice pics there.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

[northlodge]

Since the only Liverpool based pen maker that I'm aware of would be Curzons / Summit I would assume that it would have been produced under contract by them for a retailer e.g Lewis' in Liverpool. Warranted 14ct on the nib sounds correct.

 

I am unsure about this.

 

rhosygell is correct about Curzons being the main player in Liverpool, and that Lang (the sister company) produced third party pens.

 

However, surely if this was accurate then the pen would have simply been "the sunbeam" without any mention to a third party manufacturer. I know that later on Lang made pens branded for Stephens and even Conway Stewart during WW2, but they seem to have rarely made pens for other "pen manufacturers". (the brand names such as National Security, Easiflow, Rufford, Lewis, etc were clearly for specific companies / outlets but do not suggest a pen manufacturer)

 

I had a brief look in Steve Hull's new book, which lists most of the obscure pen manufacturers, but could find nothing on this one.

 

Perhaps the original seller can throw some light on where they found the information that was quoted.

[fhhcpen]

I was going to ask for some pictures, but is the pen in this Ebay auction the pen in question? There are some nice pics there.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

 

 

Yes this is the one I saw.

[fhhcpen]

Since the only Liverpool based pen maker that I'm aware of would be Curzons / Summit I would assume that it would have been produced under contract by them for a retailer e.g Lewis' in Liverpool. Warranted 14ct on the nib sounds correct.

 

I am unsure about this.

 

rhosygell is correct about Curzons being the main player in Liverpool, and that Lang (the sister company) produced third party pens.

 

However, surely if this was accurate then the pen would have simply been "the sunbeam" without any mention to a third party manufacturer. I know that later on Lang made pens branded for Stephens and even Conway Stewart during WW2, but they seem to have rarely made pens for other "pen manufacturers". (the brand names such as National Security, Easiflow, Rufford, Lewis, etc were clearly for specific companies / outlets but do not suggest a pen manufacturer)

 

I had a brief look in Steve Hull's new book, which lists most of the obscure pen manufacturers, but could find nothing on this one.

 

Perhaps the original seller can throw some light on where they found the information that was quoted.

 

To Nothlodge,

Do you think contacting Steve Hull a good idea? It is getting interesting.

[fhhcpen]

Hi all, I want to share the wealth to those of you still interested in this topic. It appeared many people were just as interested in this pen as I did, and it also brought to Steve Hull's attention. Our FPNer andyR and Steve has done a research on this and this is what I have from and with consent of Andy, to share with you:

 

-QUOTE-

 

A few days ago Steve Hull received an e-mail from George Kovalenko regarding the pen in this ebay auction . It is a brand and maker not listed in Steve's new book and George wondered if he had any additional information. In fact Steve and I had discussed the pen earlier and I was one of the unlucky bidders (pens from this seller routinely reach twice their typical value!) so he forwarded the e-mail to me.

 

I have done a bit of research and have a theory but first it is worth setting out a bit of background. It is not that surprising that the maker doesn't appear in Steve's book as it only contains makers or names that appeared in the national stationery trade press and there must have been many smaller makers who did not merit a mention in these journals so they remain largely unknown.

 

One thing to consider is the name - 'North British' in the last century (and earlier) tends to imply a Scottish company though the pen barrel states the company was based in Liverpool, so this is one slight anomaly. Small companies often marketed pens actually made by other companies while claiming in advertising they were 'the actual manufacturers of these pens' but it is unusual to see a company name implying a manufacturer like this impressed on the barrel. If they bought the pen in, where was it actually made? Curzon/Lang in Liverpool would be a likely choice, though any one of a number of companies (such as London based Henry Stark, Son & Hamilton) could have produced the same pen. Would Curzon/Lang produce for a small local company apparently setting up in competition to them? There may be a clue in that they were one of the first UK companies to advertise pens with boxed levers (in 1921, as revealed in Steve's book) and this Sunbeam pen (with a boxed lever) probably dates to the first half of the 1920s. And why the name Sunbeam? I'm not sure Sunbeam is a name readily linked to a rather grimy industrial Liverpool in the 1920s! None of this is conclusive evidence of an actual manufacturer, be it the North British Pen company or one of the more established manufacturers of pens for other companies to retail. You'll notice here I'm trying to avoid use of the term 'own brand manufacturer' which has produced tedious and seemingly endless disagreements elsewhere on the board.......!

 

So we are looking for a theory that fits all these facts. Here are my thoughts, though I stress this is no more than (educated) speculation, I have no proof of any of this!

 

There was a long established rubber goods company based in Edinburgh called the 'North British Rubber Co' who made all sorts of rubber goods including small machined vulcanite jewellery, boxes and trinkets (vulcanite was a cheaper substitute for the naturally occuring Whitby Jet in a number of these products). The company was probably most famous for supplying Hunter boots, the wellingtons of choice for the country set for many years, and they were later to become part of the Uniroyal group. If you Google the name, you'll find plenty of information online. Maybe, fearing the rise of bakelite as competition to vulcanite in the manufacture of many of their small items they looked to use their expertise in machining vulcanite to move into the pen manufacturing business, in the same way as the Silvertown operation started in London some 10 years or more earlier and in doing so, they hooked up with some Curzon/Lang employees who wanted to set up in business for themselves. This would have been logical as Liverpool would have been the most northerly of the established pen manufacturing centres at the time and North British Rubber had warehousing in nearby Manchester. North British Rubber would have supplied the vulcanite parts, ready machined, while the former Curzon employees would have used their contacts to purchase off the shelf metal parts (nibs, clips, lever boxes etc.) either from Curzons themselves or from the companies that supplied these parts to Curzons. No large investment in machinery would have been required and the pens could have been assembled from these parts at home with just a few tools. Intriguingly, George pointed out to me that there is a street in the West Derby area of Liverpool called Sunbeam Road, could this have been the origin of the name? On checking the 1911 census, this was a fully residential street (so no pen factory there) and unfortunately there are no likely candidates in the list of residents for the venture - roll on the release of the 1921 census!

 

All this would explain the rather unlikely sounding 'North British' name, why the business was set up in Liverpool, why there were similarities with other pens made by Curzon/Lang and even (possibly) the Sunbeam name. The lack of any mention in the national stationery trade journals and the rarity of pens marked in this way would indicate that the venture was rather short-lived.

 

Anyone who fancies spending a few days in the Liverpool library with the local trade directories and other sources would probably be able to dig out some more clues to the company's origins but meanwhile, it has been fun thinking about it - and I'm still sorry I didn't win the pen!

 

Andy

 

Edited to add

 

I've just realized Curzons marketed a Summit Sunset pen towards the end of the 1920s. I wonder if the arrival of the Sunset marked the end of the Sunbeam in some way!

 

-UNQUOTE-