Coronet or Not?

April 5, 2007

A beautiful Wahl-Eversharp pen and pencil set closed today on e-Bay. It was described as a Coronet set. Here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/3yduar. (In case that doesn't work, here's the item number: 280100285980.)

It looks like a Coronet except for the barrel. David Nishimura has one for sale and describes in as Coronet-like and I believe that's accurate.

But what should it properly be called?

Thanks.

Bob Sachs

April 5, 2007

What's wrong with the barrel? Why isn't this a Coronet set?

April 5, 2007

I was watching this set, too. I'm impressed with the price it ran up to. I personally think it is a Coronet set but don't have the docs to prove it. The closest I can come is a December 1938 Saturday Evening Post ad hawking repeating pencils that all have the Coronet caps in different variations. Have a look. (I still have the 2nd from the right in gold, sporting red pyralin inserts).

Edited April 5, 2007 by MLKirk

April 5, 2007

QUOTE (skipwilliams @ Apr 5 2007, 03:12 AM)

What's wrong with the barrel? Why isn't this a Coronet set?

I don't know. Perhaps it's the design of the barrel. I have an all metal Coronet and the end of the barrel has a design similar to the top of the cap. This plastic barrel didn't have that. Perhaps plastic Coronets didn't have the same barrel design as the metal ones.

As I said, Nishimura calls it "Coronet-like."

Maybe someone who knows (Syd) could help us.

Bob

April 10, 2007

I now think it really is a Coronet. Gary Lehrer sold one looking exactly like this for $400 (pen only) in Sept. 2005. Here's how he described it:

"Coronet LF in Green Pearl Web with Gold Filled pinstripe cap. Black Pyralin inserts. Beautiful! Pen has the famous "automatic ink shut-off valve" which operates when capped! Medium, extra-flexible, slightly italic nib. Near mint, with no dents, dings or brassing."

Bob

April 15, 2007

The question of the Coronet nomenclature has been bugging me for a number of years, and this thread prompted me to take a quick look at my files. The results I've posted as a new Pen Profile -- which is still very much a work in progress.

Upshot is, the "Coronet" name was applied to both the full and half-covered pens, but as far as I can find, only in a single catalog where it was also stated that the "Coronet Line" was to be sold by jewelers only -- and in which near-identical pencils were listed separated as non-Coronet Line products. Very confusing.

April 17, 2007

David,

Thanks for sharing this information. This helps a lot.

Bob Sachs

April 17, 2007

Once again we are confronted with what "we collectors" have lumped together as one "model" when from all the available literature there were more models than that involved. The gold filled pen with the triangular darts pyralin design that we today have been referring to as the Coronet was as far as the company literature is concerned never called a Coronet.

The pen I am referring to is the top pen in the picture below. (it came in black or dubonnet pyralin). From all the literature I have (about 7 ads, 3 dealer catalog supplements and 2 original factory repair manuals, it was always called the Eversharp Gold Filled Pen or the New Eversharp Gold Filled Pen. By the time the pen came out in 1936, Wahl or Wahl-Eversharp had not manufactured an all gold filled pen since 1929. When the "New Gold Filled Pen" as the advertisements called it in 1936, came out there had been such a void of time since the last Wahl gold filled pens were made that the ads heralded the fact by saying "The Gold Filled Pen Is Back" (Saturday Evening Post December 1936). The pen and pencil set was offered in time for Christmas in that year. In 1937 The Wahl-Eversharp factory repair manual shows 2 full pages of the pen describing its features and its mechanics and it is called nothing other then the Eversharp Gold Filled Pen. The literature says that you could buy this pen at your Eversharp Pen Dealer.

The only pen that was ever called a Coronet in the factory literature was the one with the small "lattice triangle bands" in both all gold filled and gold filled cap with Pyroxalin/Pyralin barrel. That would be the second, third and fourth items from the top in the below photo.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P3010268.jpg

As mentioned by David, these were supposed to be wholesaled to and retailed by Jewelry stores.

There is one very important marketing "convention" that Wahl Eversharp seems to have adopted (not unlike other merchandisers of the day) during the late Doric era, and that is the concept of "The Line". They began to group products in "Lines" The "Royal Line" meant Lever Fillers, the "DeLuxe Line" stood for Vac Fillers. So the idea of a "Line" for Jewelry stores is not so far fetched.

I grew up in Retail. Retailers go to trade shows, there were many different kinds of trade shows. Trade shows catered to segments of the retail trades...sometimes exclusively. 2 totally distinct trade shows I remember going to in New York and Philadelphia were the Gift Show and the Jewelry Show. Many floors of a hotel hosted these shows. You did not get in unless you were in "the Trade". Each hotel room or two had one or another manufacturer or the distributor for a number of manufacturers inside. The Jewelry show was for, you guessed it, Jewelers. So it is not inconceivable that the Eversharp company could devise a "Line" for the Jewelry trade.

The naming of mechanical pencil models was even a bigger problem for Wahl-Eversharp. Why? Well for Wahl the very word "Eversharp" was supposed to mean mechanical pencil. The company practically trademarked the word Eversharp as applied only to mechanical pencils. The company's first writing instruments were called Eversharps. In every pen and pencil ad from that time to and through the time after they began to make fountain pens, they continued to rely heavily on the reputation of the Eversharp's success. This was such a successful branding concept that the general public referred to all mechanical pencils as eversharps. Now it appears to me that the Wahl Company was never ready to relinquish the mechanical pencil to any other name than Eversharp, and all the way to and through the "Coronet" era, they continued to refer to the pencil companion to the fountain pen as an Eversharp. EXCEPT FOR THE CORONET PEN SET. In this rare case they called the pencil a "Coronet" pencil!

Anyway call them whatever you want, but technically, the only "Coronet" that I can identify as such is the #2 from the top in the photo.

Syd the Wahlnut

There's more...there's always more it seems, but it's late and thats about all for tonight.

Edited April 17, 2007 by Wahlnut