Vintage Pilot Pen

[watching]

Hi

 

The other day, while ransacking the house, I discovered a set of EE Ercolessi EE (it is in the Penne Stilografiche della Bella Italia section, if you want to see the pictures) and today, I come across an old Pilot pen which was used by my late father. He gave to me this pen, long before he passed, in 1968.

 

This pen is not in good condition, since I can still remember, the barrel was damaged by the pen repairer when he tried to replace the pump.

 

Kindly advise me when was this pen produced. On the barrel, it is imprinted: "PILOT' USA PAT (logo) NO. 1600293 PILOT PEN MFG CO. LTD.

 

The clip and band are clean with no brassing, while the same cannot be said about the metal lever connected to the pump. There are scratches on the barrel and flat-head cap.

 

Thank you.

[AltecGreen]

Assuming the nib is original to the pen, I would say the pen is most likely pre-war II. Wartime Japanese pens were fitted with shiro steel nibs. The nib itself does not bear the JIS mark which would be consistent with a pre-war pen. Although the lack of the JIS mark on the top of the nib does not automatically make this a pre-war pen. Looking through Andreas Lambrou's book, similar Pilot pens with the knurled end cap are listed as dating to 1928.

 

The lever can be repaired and the pen could be made to work again with reasonably easily. I don't recall the 'Coarse' nib being that common.

[watching]

Assuming the nib is original to the pen, I would say the pen is most likely pre-war II. Wartime Japanese pens were fitted with shiro steel nibs. The nib itself does not bear the JIS mark which would be consistent with a pre-war pen. Although the lack of the JIS mark on the top of the nib does not automatically make this a pre-war pen. Looking through Andreas Lambrou's book, similar Pilot pens with the knurled end cap are listed as dating to 1928.

 

The lever can be repaired and the pen could be made to work again with reasonably easily. I don't recall the 'Coarse' nib being that common.

 

Hi

 

Thanks for your response and also, the information.

 

My photographer-friend pulled the nib out, a little, and managed to get for me, another picture. Apparently, there are some other imprinted words below the figure '3'. It says: 'POINTED HARDEST IRIDIUM THE PILOT PEN MFG. CO. LTD'.

 

The additional picture is shown, here.

 

Thank you.

[stan]

Your pen was likely made in the late 1920s or early 1930s. Nakazono FPOTW, who has photos of some early pens by Pilot, shows a similar pen with knurled cap and two cap rings that he dates as 1930. It is on page 113 of the second printing. Nice find! You should be able to get the lever repaired quite easily.

[hawkgnat]

It should be pretty easy to date, considering the fact that it was made after the company changed it's name to pilot, but before it changed the N in the logo to P. Unfortunately, I can't remember what those dates were. I think the nib is a pretty uncommon one, being coarse, which is pretty cool, and the scratches should probably polish out pretty easily. My biggest concern would be finding out how to replace the lever.

[guyless]

Sorry to come so very late indeed to this particular party– but the short version is I've been away from the pen collecting community for while and not followed the evolution of the brave new world of avid American collectors interested in Japan for a number of years.

 

Once upon a time the most reliable way to date a Pilot or Namiki (the company used both names from the get go) was to use the rich collection of absolutely beautiful historic ads/posters to be found on the Pilot-Namiki company website (now evidently, very sadly, taken down). Each of them was very helpfully dated with its Showa (or Taisho) era year. And fortunately, in this case there was one showing this exact pen in 1931–in black, with flat knurled top, with a plain gold lever filler and gold trim including double band and a Pilot embossed clip.

 

Use of English for western style products like fountain pens for brand names, slogans and copy was very much a prestige thing before the war years– though it was often non-too reliable in terms of nuance to actual western ears. Broad nibs which are very very uncommon were always, insofar as I know, denominated by the always amusing "Coarse"-- as is this one. Typically Pilot nibs with an oval heart hole are at the less flexible end of the spectrum. Unfortunately, unlike say Watermans of the same era, during the Second World War vast quantities of gold fountain pens nibs were melted down-- and in consequence the collective community knowledge of Pilot's pre war nib craft will never rival what we know about the color coded Watermans, for instance.

 

This is really quite a precious pen and a model made for only a very brief period. I do hope it found a sensitive restorer and has been restored to service. For what it is, (assuming the barrel had not cracked) its condition is far from poor. If anyone remains interested, I'd be happy to post the ad which I down loaded about 6 years ago and still have on another computer.

[hari317]

Pls do post the ad. it will be a nice addition.

[rwilsonedn]

Fascinating history. Thank you for adding it, even after so much time.

I would have guessed, based on the prominent "USA patent" in the barrel engraving, that the pen had been made either for export or by an obscure US subsidiary. Your point about the status conveyed by using English and associations with the US make the pen all the more interesting.

ron

[guyless]

Here it is:

 

 

Aside from being informative, the artwork put out by Pilot Namiki was pretty spectacular. Delighted you're interested.

[aenjin]

Thanks for posting the ad! Showa 5 so from 1930? I really like the letterforms used.

[Aramchek]

I was surprised that it is a lever filler. I was under the impression that filling systems using any kind of sac was very unusual in Japan since the technology was not available back then to make sacs that would not rot during the summer due to the Japanese climate.

[stan]

You have been reading too much about pens.

 

Sacs have been used in American pens since the turn of the 19th to 20th century. American pens were used in Florida, the Caribbean, and lots of other places with humid, hot, cold, dry, etc. climates. Have you been to Houston in the summer?. What is so unique about the climate of Japan? Humidity does not destroy rubber! Rubber technology? Japan had access to everything we had in America.

 

I do not have the exact answer to the question. I suggest and believe there may have been cultural affinities towards eyedroppers.For example, eyedroppers do not require repair or the same maintenance as lever fillers. Sacs do go bad or wear out. There was a strong like of the Onoto-style pen that seemed to linger. Many older fountain pens were designed to carried from ones obi, clothing that did not have pockets.

[guyless]

Years ago, when Dr Ron Dutcher was very generously mentoring so many of us about many of the more baffling subtleties of vintage Japan pens, he spoke regularly about heirloom grade silk kimonos and the ink shut off valves of EDs affording surer protection against accidents than other filler systems. So perhaps that was a factor in their enduring popularity to this day. I personally love them and absolutely hate cartridges (though no ink catastrophe can rival the experience of filling a newly acquired vintage pen and discovering an ED's seals have gone bad).

 

In terms of dating lever fillers, Nakazono (p 119) shows a Pilot with their beautifully crafted 2-piece filler he dates to 1924 and Andy Lambrou shows two very deluxe pens with elaborate silver inlay over lacquer he dates to 1928 (FPotW p 360), for instance. Here is another Pilot ad/poster dating from 1927 (year 15 of the Taisho era) with their earlier lever filler. Though it cannot quite be seen in the scan, these early Pilot filler levers were engraved with their lifesaver logo with an "N" in the center.

 

As for how much earlier lever fillers might have been made by Japanese makers, it is quite possible that Andy's new book may shed light. Sadly, it is rather above and beyond my current book budget. What I can say is that records and original research by Andy and Ron among others reveal that both imported and domestically made pens came into fashion as luxury goods by the turn of the century, and a number of companies flourished before the First World War. Unfortunately, compared to western pens of the same time period, really early Japanese pens are extraordinarily rare, and aside from Ron I know of no one with catalogues of the pre-WW1 period.

 

And, oh yes-- a big hello to you, Stan (it's been a while).

Edited August 24, 2013 by guyless

[stan]

A brief summary of the earliest pictures in Lambrou FPOJ.

 

The earliest Pilot lever filler is dated 1920.

The earliest Platinum lever filler is dated 1930

The earliest Sailor lever filler is dated late 1920s.

Ford (sub-brand of Arabian) lever filler from 1933.

Arabian was a major supplier of parts and would have more lever fillers in their catalog, if they were popular.

S.S.S. (major-player) lever filler from about 1925.

Itoya Romeo lever filler from about 1926.

Debut lever filer from about 1930.

Maruzen Athena lever filler from 1934.

 

This is only a survey of photographs in the book. I think Lambrou's book (this is Sumani's collection, who is the real expert) provides a decent array of makes and models to correctly date many pens. However, there are a number of minor date errors and a good number of quality manufacturers are not represented. Nakazono, although much limited in scope, is more accurate.

 

Of all the many many pre-war pens I have owned and sold I cannot claim to have had one from the 1920s.

 

There may also have been patent issues surrounding use of the lever filler mechanism.

Don't know.

Another thought is that during war years (mid-1930s to post-WWII) rubber may have been an essential material.

I know most metals were, for sure.

 

Ladies, whether in kimono or Western-style dress, typically carried handbags.

As mentioned above, eyedroppers can be an even greater mess than lever fillers.

Imagine if one forgot to shut one off.

 

For some time I thought that if pens leaked it had to do with the ink.

Anyone with half a brain in chemistry can correct this problem, so that was not the cause.

 

There should be no reason known to physics why a fountain pen might leak in Japan and not somewhere in America or Europe.

 

The answer lies in culture, tradition, marketing, and an as yet unknown somewhere else.