The First Bottle For Skrip

[rhr]

Granted, we are clearly at square one with the first bottle, but it can't be a H over A marked Hazel- Atlas since they started that in 1923 (that is the right way to state that). Could be Hazel-Atlas not H over A marked, or it could be another maker. Could look like the 1924 bottle, or could be completely different.

That pretty well covers everything. Very diplomatic. ;~)

 

George Kovalenko.

 

[rhr]

I have two of the library bottles and I wouldn't spend the $80 to get the one with the label (just broke right now). I know of a few more...maybe just as rare as the globe bottle and consider the globe bottle got more advertising than the library bottle. I think the public wants squat ink bottle that don't look like they would spill.

The Library bottle is rarer because fewer were made, and fewer still survive, but I should have added that the Waterman's bottle is more sought after. Collectability is not just a matter of beauty, workmanship, and rarity, but also desirability.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

Edited April 13, 2011 by rhr

[Roger W.]

 

The Library bottle is rarer because fewer were made, and fewer still survive, but I should have added that the Waterman's bottle is more sought after. Collectability is not just a matter of beauty, workmanship, and rarity, but also desirability.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

 

George;

 

Very true - Value is rarity PLUS desirability. A Sheaffer #1 pen from '25 is rare but, it isn't that desirable so their prices reflect that. So the globe bottles are held more widely in collections than the library bottle which, I have little doubt, is the case. Thanks, George.

 

Roger W.

[pengoddess]

I was thumbing through old Sheaffer Reviews this morning looking for something else, but came across some Skrip dates. These dates are all over the place in early Skrip development!

 

"until the development of Skrip in 1919"

Sheaffer Review March 1949

 

"Robert S Casey, the pen company's Chief Chemist, who developed the original Skrip in 1922"

Sheaffer Review April 1956

 

"Top-well bottle created in 1933"

"Sheaffer's Skrip has, since it's introduction in 1924 ...."

 

Also - Carr-Lowrey shipped 33 carloads of Skrip Bottle to Sheaffer in 1934" (Carr-Lowrey was a glass bottle maker in Baltimore who designed the skripwell bottles)

Sheaffer Review (my copy was not dated, but it is ca. 1953)

 

"In July of 1922, a new department was set up in a basement of our company's plant, which was then the former Morrison Plow Works Building."

 

Also - Six employees were assigned to the department and their job was to manufacture and process the latest Sheaffer product, an improved fountain pen fluid

Sheaffer Review, May 1959

 

And of interest with regard to the 1919 date above - Bob Casey was employed by Sheaffer from 1920 - 1963.

 

The Sheaffer Review articles in general seem to be put together from material Sheaffer would have had on file, they had various editors over the years. There of course could be errors. Personally, I'd put more credence in the Sheaffer Review's than W.A.'s autobiography, parts of which are rather self-serving!

 

Sam

[Roger W.]

I was thumbing through old Sheaffer Reviews this morning looking for something else, but came across some Skrip dates. These dates are all over the place in early Skrip development!

 

"until the development of Skrip in 1919"

Sheaffer Review March 1949

 

"Robert S Casey, the pen company's Chief Chemist, who developed the original Skrip in 1922"

Sheaffer Review April 1956

 

"Top-well bottle created in 1933"

"Sheaffer's Skrip has, since it's introduction in 1924 ...."

 

Also - Carr-Lowrey shipped 33 carloads of Skrip Bottle to Sheaffer in 1934" (Carr-Lowrey was a glass bottle maker in Baltimore who designed the skripwell bottles)

Sheaffer Review (my copy was not dated, but it is ca. 1953)

 

"In July of 1922, a new department was set up in a basement of our company's plant, which was then the former Morrison Plow Works Building."

 

Also - Six employees were assigned to the department and their job was to manufacture and process the latest Sheaffer product, an improved fountain pen fluid

Sheaffer Review, May 1959

 

And of interest with regard to the 1919 date above - Bob Casey was employed by Sheaffer from 1920 - 1963.

 

The Sheaffer Review articles in general seem to be put together from material Sheaffer would have had on file, they had various editors over the years. There of course could be errors. Personally, I'd put more credence in the Sheaffer Review's than W.A.'s autobiography, parts of which are rather self-serving!

 

Sam

 

Sam;

 

I agree that the autobiography has to be used quite cautiously. We do know that "ink" was advertised in April 1920. WA said a young man came to them with the idea perhaps that is Bob Casey and perhaps he wasn't a Sheaffer employee when he came to them in 1919 but was by the time the ink was first ready. The Skrip trademark is very good as the application was filed on June 17, 1920 and just claims to go back to a first in use date of April 10, 1920.

 

Evidence certainly comes in levels of reliance. Contemporaneous legal filings is a high level source document. Sheaffer Reviews being written for the benefit of Sheaffer employees years after events actually took place get a much lower level of reliance. WA's rambling autobiography again is not high on reliance. No document provides absolute reliance but, some are a lot closer than others.

 

Skripwell legal - design patent 91,183 by Gene Aiken ass'n to Carr-Lowrey August 15, 1933. As these concerns were out of Baltimore, Maryland it may have taken some time for them to get a buyer (Sheaffer) as we know the first ad for the skripwell was October 1934 (could have been advertised a month earlier as I don't have September ads).

 

Roger W.

Edited April 27, 2011 by Roger W.

[rhr]

Here's a 1920 article from American Stationer about Skrip ink. It's about the first batch of the ink that Roger mentions in the first and last messages in this topic, and it's from the period before they found out that the ink failed. The article made it sound like the ink had Noodler's-like properties.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/rhrpen/f9c432de.jpg

[John54green]

Hello Folks,

This post is why I am sometimes rapturous about FPN, informative, civil, erudite and diverse all come to mind, thank you all very much!

[georges zaslavsky]

outstanding post roger w, thanks for sharing

Edited January 7, 2012 by georges zaslavsky