Pelikan Logo

[rhr2010]

I would be interested in getting the history of the Logo straight and then maybe the moderator can pin the thread. There was a recent thread about the subjet and it appears that this is a recurring topic, so why not getting it straight once and for all and then pin it to the thread?

 

I found the 2 chicks Logo on a 100 Pelikan and I was puzzled because on the official web site of Pelikan it is stated that it was introduced in 1957. Somebody suggests the possibility of a typo and the date should be 1937. However, the design of the specific logo reminds more of 1957. Anyway, you can go to http://www.pelikan.c....63058./history , scroll to year 2003 and you see the "official" chronology of Pelikan Logo. Maybe if they have a typo somebody more expert than me should let them know.

 

1957 must be wrong, maybe they miss one Logo there. By the way, is there any 400 series pen with 4 chicks?

 

Can anybody list the Logos from 1929 to present with some certainty?

[rhr2010]

Anybody?

[daenghafez]

It could be typo-error.

 

As for the 400, there should only be 2 chicks on the captop. I have never seen one with four chicks on the 400 captop. I've only seen the 4 chicks' version (and 2 chicks') on the 100 / 100N.

[Guest Pjay]

According to http://www.pelikanpens.co.uk/acatalog/Frequently_Asked_Questions.html two chicks were introduced in 1938,

just to muddy the waters a little!

[rhr2010]

Pjay, thank you. Your link looks very interesting. 1937 or 1938 sounds plausible for the introduction of the two chicks Logo. I wonder if one has to assume that that Logo was black bird on white background...of course in an hard rubber or celluloide pen it would imply that the background is chased and filled with white color. My pens seem to have the birds chased in. In addition it seems that there was a second two chicks Logo introduced later on. In your web site is 1962 in the "official" Pelikan document it is 1957. It looks like everybody is throwing in a date, but I feel confident now to say that a two chick Logo first appeared in the late 30's and then it was again proposed in the late 50's with minor changes (?)...

We are having some progress

[soapytwist]

It was my understanding (I can't remember where from though!) that the 'two chicks' logo was brought in around 1937-8 as an update to celebrate the company's 100th anniversary (1938).

[rhr2010]

I feel quite confident now that the two chick Logo was brought out in 1937-38. Somebody should point out the error to the Pelikan official site. I am not sure why to celebrate the 100 years they reduced the number of chicks. I personally like better the old 4 chicks Logo...maybe they were predicting that the pelicans were a species on the verge of extinction and promoting the message of their difficulty to reproduce due to the pollution in the environment...just kidding...

[Guest Pjay]

Hi rhr2010, it's unfortunate that more knowledgeable FPN members don't help out with this kind of inquiry. I had a similar question about Duofolds on the Parker forum here, and ended up getting more helpful information on vendor's sites on eBay. For a forum with 40,000+ members, the silence can be sometimes deafening when you ask a question ...

 

I agree with you that a definitive description of the logo dating would make a great 'sticky'.

[Limenweim]

I guess most people won't know about the dating of logo, so you can't really blame them on the lack of replies. I have seen this picture being posted by a member in this forum, "Readymade", in a query I posted a couple of months back. Here it is:

 

 

Not too sure if this helps!

 

Edit: Here is the link to his post... (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/169197-pelikan-m200-query/page__view__findpost__p__1700035)

Edited December 10, 2010 by Limenweim

[Guest Pjay]

Hi, Limenweim, the picture you've passed on is consistent with the information from Niche Pens (my favourite Pelikan retailer). The last logo in that picture was introduced in 1962, and then the more recent (single chick) logo was introduced in 2003. Thanks for chiming in...

[rhr2010]

Thank you Limenweim, your post is very good. I wish the moderator pinned it to the thread for quick reference. I am still puzzled how the official site of Pelikan could miss the 1938 Logo. I guess in 1929 when Pelikan produced the first fountain pen they used the 1922 Logo that carried on till the 1933 Logo and then the latest 100 Pelikan pens had the 1938 Logo and the series 400 started with the 1938 two chicks Logo.

[Limenweim]

Hi, Limenweim, the picture you've passed on is consistent with the information from Niche Pens (my favourite Pelikan retailer). The last logo in that picture was introduced in 1962, and then the more recent (single chick) logo was introduced in 2003. Thanks for chiming in...

 

Yeah, the last logo is engraved in the older pens, while the newer ones are silk-screened, forgot to transfer that information from that previous post to this!

 

Edit: Quote Readymade

 

"The diagram doesn't include the most recent logo, used from 2003 onwards. There's only 1 chick in that one.

 

Secondly, since all the pens are of different sizes the logo designs differ due to size and aesthetic constraints.

 

Thirdly, for a given model the representations of the logo on the cap top have changed too. For example, the M400 when first released in 1982 had engraved logos like the 1950s 400s they were based on. Pelikan changed this to silkscreen-printed cap tops in 1997. "

Edited December 10, 2010 by Limenweim

[Guest Pjay]

soapytwist was on the money, as this source http://www.ruettinger-web.de/e-pelikan-historie.html verifies the 1938 date for the introduction of the two chick logo "redesigned for the anniversary catalogue".