The pens of the Baird-North Company

[Johnny Appleseed]

Some time ago, while nosing around in a local antique shop, I found a little vest-pocket Eyedropper pen with the imprint "Baird-North Co." It had an Aikin-Lambert nib, and the price was very good, so I bought it. As often does, this sent me on a quest to find some information on Baird-North.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/Baird-North-and-co.jpg

 

Fortunately, the Baird-North company has a connection with the actress Ruth Hussey and I was able to find a fairly good synopsis of the company on-line.

 

Baird-North styled themselves as "Gold-Silversmiths", but they quickly became a major retailer of jewelry, silver and gold tableware, charms, and various other fancy items, including pens and pencils. They were founded by William G Hussey in 1892 in Salem Massachusetts. In 1907 William Hussey and his son George R. Hussey moved the company to Providence Rhode Island. George took over after the death of his father in 1908 and ran the company until his death in 1918. Under George's leadership the company supposedly grew to be the 4th largest mail-order outfit in the country. The company continued until 1929-1930, when it merged with the Jason Weiler company to make Jason Weiler - Baird North Inc. of Boston.

 

Most likely Baird-North never made pens, but had pens made by another manufacturer with their name on them. Who made Baird-North pens is a matter for investigation, but I suspect that there was more than one source over the years.

 

Recently as part of my research, I had the good fortune to loose an auction for a 1909 Baird-North catalog. I say good fortune because I contacted the winner to ask if I could buy some copies of the pages of the catalog with pens. The answer was better than I could imagine, and I am sincerely indebted to Joanne and Bob Schwartz, who run "Charms and Charm Bracelets - The Web Site". Link They scanned and sent me a CD with 40 pages of scans from Baird North Catalogs from 1898 to 1933, detailing the pens and writing instruments sold by Baird North, asking for nothing more in return than that I help out someone else someday. This was a very generous thing, and I am truly thankful.

 

So I am going to be posting these pages here and a few other places on the web, and hope that they serve as useful reference for others researching pen history. In addition to pens with the Baird-North brand, the catalogs shows Waterman, Wirt, Conklin, Chilton, Swan, Parker and Sheaffer pens and Eversharp pencils. Not all the scans are perfect, but as one does not look a gift horse in the mouth I hope you will all forgive these imperfections.

 

Without further ado:

 

1898 - not a fountain pen in sight.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BAIRDNORTH1898.jpg

 

1905 - Baird North fountain pens are present, as well as Waterman and a Crocker. Their is also a non-leakable pen listed without a brand name, but I believe they are Moore.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1905A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1905B.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1905C.jpg

 

1907 - more of the same

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1907A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1907B.jpg

 

1909 - suddenly the Waterman and Crocker are gone, but Wirts have been added. A few changes appear in the Baird North line themselves.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1909A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1909B.jpg

 

1911 - Baird-North brand pens seem to be theonly fountain pens that appear. Note that dip pens and pencils still have a good showing.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1911A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1911B.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1911C.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1911D.jpg

 

1913 - similar to 1911.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1913A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1913B.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1913C.jpg

 

1914 - But suddenly a few Waterman's are back, and we see the Parker Lucky Curve make it's appearance for the first time.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1914A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1914B.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1914C.jpg

 

That is all the images I can post - the rest will be continued in my next post.

Edited July 25, 2006 by Johnny Appleseed

[antoniosz]

These are beautiful, John. I am very impressed by the quality of the photographs.

My impression was that many of the catalogs of that age had graphical representation of the pens, not photographs.

Here even the 1898 one appears to be a photograph. Looking forward for the rest

Edited June 2, 2006 by antoniosz

[Johnny Appleseed]

Continuing the catalogs:

 

1916 -

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1916B.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1916C.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1916A.jpg

 

1917 -

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1917A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1917B.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1917C.jpg

 

1919 -

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1919A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1919B.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1919C.jpg

 

And a booklet from 1919

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1919Booklet.jpg

 

1920 -

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1920A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1920B.jpg

 

1924 -

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1924A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1924B.jpg

 

1925 -

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1925A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1925B.jpg

 

1927 -

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1927A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1927B.jpg

 

1928 - this is the last year the Baird-North was an independant company - by 1930 they have merged with Jason Weiler.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1928.jpg

 

1930 - The Jason Weiler Baird North Co. - in color!

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1930A.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1930B.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1930C.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1930D.jpg

 

1933 -

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/laridae/BairdNorth1933A.jpg

 

I will add more commentary, but this is all the images.

 

John

[antoniosz]

WOW

 

I will take a blue, a pink and a red 7, maybe a pansy, put a blue ripple too (54 or higher please ). I would not mind if you add an Endura, and a large Wahl set. Do I get a discount. The military pen is extra cute (with the ink pills ). I will take that too.

Put theoversize Carter in mottle blue, and the Parker miracle pen as well as the $3.75 1933 Parker in every color available (flexible nib please ).

 

John, this series is awesome. Many thanks for making it available!.....

[Gerry]

Very much appreciated Johnny. Wonderful pictures.

 

Thanks very much to you both (Johnny and Antonios) for adding so much to our History Forum. I hope others will be able to use these to date and further identify pens in their collections or to otherwise further their research.

 

Warmest regards,

 

Gerry

[Johnny Appleseed]

I will take a blue, a pink and a red 7, maybe a pansy, put a blue ripple too (54 or higher please ).

 

Tha Blue ripple set is only $7.00. . .

. . . while supplies last

 

I'd like a few of those Baird-North thumb-fillers.

 

The military pen is extra cute (with the ink pills ).

 

The military pen is a Swan - I think the only Swan in the catalog. They must have gotten ahold of some surplus after the war. The Parker trench-pen does not appear. We have a post around here somewhere about trench pens.

 

Interestingly, since I go the Baird-North eyedropper back in late Feb of this year, I have added it to my regular ebay search. So far not one Baird-North pen has come up in 3 months. We will see what the rest of the year brings, but any ambition I have to be a Baird-North collector is not going anywhere.

 

I will try to digest some of the info here and enhance some of the scans to see what info can be gleaned. The real thanks goes to Joanne and Robert at iheartcharms.com, for scanning all of this from their collection.

 

For more sources of vintage Ads- Penhero.com has an extensive online collection of vintage advertising, as well as filling-systems and other ephemera.Pen Hero - Gallery

 

Lion and Pen is working on a library of ephemera, but it will only be available to regestered members - Lion and Pen

 

John