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The Washington Medallion Pen Company was the first, successful, industrial producer of steel (dip) pens in the United States. I've written elsewhere the history of the company, including the early years, and then their later lawsuits. The lawsuits were mainly around Washington Medallion protecting their trademarked designs of both pens and packaging. The first one, and one I've written about extensively in the article on the lawsuits I linked to above, involved George Harrison and George Bradford, who were contracted for producing the pens. In January 1864, the original design patent had expired so Harrison and Bradford began making and marketing the pens under the name of "Harrison & Bradford's Washington Medallion Pen." The original owners of the company sued and won. Harrison and Bradford continued to make pens, but of their own design and under their own name. The Washington Medallion Pen Company resumed their own manufacturing of the pens using other contractors. (who, is a mystery yet to be solved) Another of those lawsuits, this time from four years later in 1868, was successful against the young Esterbrook Steel Pen Manufacturing Company. The newspaper articles describing the lawsuit mention that this lawsuit is important because the courts, in this lawsuit, are setting precedent for what kinds of designs could be trademarked, including packaging, and manufacturers should pay attention so that they don't run afoul of the new standards. The Washington Medallion box at this time looked like this. The lawsuit referenced here is the one against Harrison and Bradford. So far, none of the pens with the medallion of George Washington have been found, but I recently came into possession of one of the offending Esterbrook boxes that triggered the lawsuit. It's pretty clearly modeled after the Washington Medallion pen box, down to the choice of type and mottos. If anyone has one of the pens in their possession, I would love to at least get a photo.

George Harrison and George Bradford were Birmingham-trained tool makers brought to the US to start up the Washington Medallion Pen Company factory in NYC in 1856. In 1862 they bought the dies and stamps and machinery from the Washington Medallion Pen Co. and started making the pens under contract. They also formed Harrison & Bradford and started making pens under their own name as well. In late 1863 they realized the original design patent for the Washington Medallion Pen had run out so in 1864 they started making the Harrison & Bradford Washington Medallion Pen, and were promptly sued along with Eberhard Faber, their sole distributor. They lost. They continued to make Harrison & Bradford pens together until 1875 when George Harrison left the company to join John Turner, another Birmingham-trained steel pen tool maker who had helped start up Esterbrook's first factory, to found Turner & Harrison Pen Company. George Bradford continued producing Harrison & Bradford pens by himself in their Mt. Vernon, NY factory until about 1880 when he started marketing his own 1879 patent pen design under his own name. In 1881 he sold the factory and his patent to Miller Brother's Cutlery who wanted to get into the pen business. Bradford stayed and was given the role of Superintendent of Pen Production for Miller Brothers.

Brandon McKinney is a collector of Esterbrook's steel dip pens, and he has finally finished his book on the subject. I have corresponded with Brandon for a couple of years now and he has helped me better understand my collection and Esterbrook. Other than that, I have no connection with him, and I am writing this review based on my personal copy of the book which I purchased myself. The book covers several major types of information. 1. Company history, general information 2. The pens and their physical characteristics, especially changes over time, maintenance, grinding vs. stamped grooves, etc... 3. Chronology of the pens and their boxes. The history is a sketch just to set context, and is not meant to be complete nor thorough. There are some interesting pieces of general information including a list of presidents, office locations, and patents and trademarks that are useful. The sections on the pens themselves better show the great care and time Brandon has spent looking at the pens, especially important numbers like the flagship 048 Falcon and the 128 Extra Fine Elastic. For collectors, it's the sections on the chronological dating of nibs and boxes that is the most useful and is not found anywhere else. I have been using this system for dating Esterbrook's steel pens for over a year now with my own collection and research. So far, I've not found any problems with his system. I have found one example of a stamp he does not have, but it's a very rare copper-coated example he and I are still trying to figure out. For 99.9% of all of the examples you will find in the wild, his system of dating to general eras will work perfectly well, and combined with his description of how the earlier differed from some of the later pens, should help you find just what you're looking to add to your collection. Overall, despite a weak area here and there (especially the history, but then the history is my area of interest, so I'm not sure how much would be enough), and I may not agree with every conclusion Brandon has (see the "gravity well" section), and the very rare error (the 314 Relief was made of a brass alloy, not bronze), the book is a highly welcome and useful resource for anyone interested in Esterbrook and their steel pens. You can purchase the book from his Etsy store in either a digital version, or a limited-run physical copy.

According to the Birmingham Daily Post in 1865. Not sure I quite believe it, considering how little hesitation the manufacturers had to come out with new designs. Perhaps some of the innovations were difficult or expensive to make. That was known to happen with some designs, and until someone could figure out how to manufacture it more cheaply, they never were built. And for those like me not familiar with the old English money system, Shilling = 12 pence Half a Crown = 2 Shillings 6 pence, or 30 pence (2.5 shillings) So, they went from 2.5 pence a pen, to .083 pence a pen. When they were going for 2.5 pence a pen in England, Williamson in the US was making pens in Baltimore from 1808 to about 1820 and selling them for $1 each. A generation later, in 1857, Washington Medallion was selling their mass-produced pens for 1.04-cents each ($1.50 per gross). 15 years later, Esterbrook sold their Falcon for half that cost.