Platignum - Gold Tone - Quick Change

[picautomaton]

I bought a Platignum Gold Tone quick change together with a Silver / Grey Estie J at a flea market for approximately 6Dollars each. While the Estie has loads of information the Platignum Gold Tone has virtually none.

I've done Google searches, checked the reviews on FPN and I can not seem to find the following information:

- What is the Quick Change designation

- What material is the barrel made off

- what size sack does the pen take

- year of manufacture

- good or bad pen (why no info)

Please see the picture below, I have stripped it down pending installation of a fresh sac.

 

any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

:hmm1:

[Uncle Red]

Sorry, I can't answer your question but this is a British brand, hopefully someone from the UK will pipe up.

If you rub the barrel do you smell burning rubber or Camphor?

 

Looks like it'll be a nice pen.

[picautomaton]

Sorry, I can't answer your question but this is a British brand, hopefully someone from the UK will pipe up.

If you rub the barrel do you smell burning rubber or Camphor?

 

Looks like it'll be a nice pen.

 

 

Hey Uncle Red

 

thanks, it has an almost sweet smell

[red52ripple]

Platignum was the name chosen by the Mentmore Manufacturing Company for their inexpensive sub-brand. Production began in the late nineteen-twenties. Mostly (though not all) steel nibbed, Platignum pens vary from the acceptable to the atrocious. I'm not sure about the Quick Change designation. They went on to produce a range of pens with interchangeable threaded nib units, and perhaps this is a stage in that development. Your pen looks like it was made in the nineteen-fifties, and the barrel looks like injection-moulded plastic to me. I can't get any sense of scale to tell what the sac size would be.

 

The main problem with surviving Platignums from this period is shrinkage and distortion of the plastic. If the pen doesn't suffer from that, it should be quite an adequate pen.

 

Regards,

[Ernst Bitterman]

Platignum was a Mentmore sub-brand aiming at a popular price line, and a lot of what they offered appears to have been in the line of "school pens". This sentence is the result of an AWFUL lot of scraping around for information; they do appear to be a very neglected brand.

 

People in the UK seem to not have very fond memories of them (unlike the low-end Sheaffer cartridge pens so many of us North American pen folk rave about). The examples I've got, which are not as attractive as yours, are functional enough if unexciting. For a date on that one, I'm going to guess late 1940s into the 1950s; the cap suggests a post-war item and they weren't really offering much for sale 1939-1945, but this still counts as guesswork.

 

Quick Change is a removable point set-up, like Esterbrook and Osmiroid.

 

edit- ACH! Wretched demands of work! There were no other replies when I started typing....

Edited July 18, 2011 by Ernst Bitterman

[picautomaton]

Thank you Ernst & Red Ripple,

 

Greatly appreciated, aha! the Mentmore Manufacturing Company (another piece of the puzzle falls into place).

 

The pen is by no means distorted so as soon as I get some sacs from Brian Anderson I should have this one up and running and post a review.

 

Keep well,

 

 

[jPod]

I know this is an old thread being brought back but I'm bringing it back because I've just picked up one of these and was still curious about the barrel material. The one I have is a wood finish and looking at the cutout that allows you to grab the lever, it looks like it was made out of real wood (or very convincing plastic!).

 

Were all Platignum pens like this as average as suggested or were there some 'better' ones out there that I might have stumbled upon?

(Please forgive the noob question!)

[eachan]

I would say they're average at best. None, so far as I'm aware, were made of wood. It may be hard rubber.

[PaulS]

whatever they're made from it isn't celluloid, I've just checked, and suspect Deborah's earlier comment about injection moulded plastic is more likely. The makers were obviously very keen on the word Gold or Golden - it appears to have been on many of their pens from the 1930s until at least the 1950s in some guise or another - it's common to find older pens from this maker with the imprint 'Golden Platignum'.

The 'Gold Tone Quick Change' appears as per the o.ps. pen - a slightly chunky almost squared off butt end to the barrel and a push fit cap, and can be found with both small and large sized nibs, and the same shape was used for their 'De Luxe' pen. I can't imagine the name 'Quick Change' refers to anything other than speedy removal of the threaded nib/feed, although after a few years of life and ink flow, it might not have been that 'quick' to change the unit.

The name Gold Tone also appears on the same shaped pen, but without the words 'Quick Change' - so perhaps on those the nib units don't unscrew.

 

Appearing subsequent to the above shape, another Platignum emerged which also carried a barrel imprint of 'Gold Tone - Quick Change' .

This slightly later model was less chunky, slightly shorter, more of a rounded end to the barrel and instead of solid colours, these were given wood grain effect and marbled finishes - unfortunately, they look even cheaper than the earlier pens, and again, none of these later pens is celluloid.

Caps and clips on later 'Quick Change' pens were different - the caps being either gilt or chrome coloured and always smooth. I have half a dozen in both the wood grain and a silvery grey marble colour - they all look to have J bars and again the nib units unscrew from the section.

I'm sure none of these 'Quick Change' models ever left the factory with a 14 ct. nib - steel and cheapness were the order of the day - Platignum pens do exist with gold nibs, but on post WW II pens very rarely.

 

Platignum (and Osmiroid) f.ps. were bought in prodigious quantities - in the U.K. - in the late 40s and 50s as school pens for working class kids - Parker and C.S. went to those better off - but we're spoiled now and I can't get to like them - every time I open the drawer out comes a very unpleasant smell, and very rarely does a steel nib do it for me.

 

In the late 1960s there were two or three gold nibbed pens available … the Pressmatic, Statesman, De Luxe, and another cheaper version, but other than these gold will only be found on much older pens.

The more interesting models are the pre WW II 'Visi-Ink pens - some with large metal buttons - three part bodies and massive windows through which to see the ink.

As a make, Platignum seem to have produced a very large number of similar models - names are often repeated with small design changes, and it can be confusing.

Edited November 17, 2018 by PaulS

[jPod]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I'm in Australia, so I'm not sure how many of these pens made it down here. A search on eBay and similar has very few for sale locally, only international (and the re-launched post 1990 Platignums obviously).

 

This one does say Platignum Gold Quick Change on it. The sac was very similar in condition to the one posted by the OP. The store owner wanted $60AUD originally (about 30GBP) and even given this is a rarer pen here, i still thought it was too much and talked him down a bit. Hard to say exactly what I paid in the end because he did a deal on quite a few (non-pen related) items and I just paid an amount in the end! I possibly still paid too much but oh well, it wasn't a bank breaking amount in the end. It isn't in terrible shape. The nib has a twist in it, but it looks like it was put there intentionally? The gold plating is wearing off as well but other than that and some wear marks expected of this age, it is in quite good condition (no warping as warned by Deborah)

 

Even though it is a cheap pen, I quite like the look of it. It is very telling that this is what was considered a cheap pen back in that era compared to the plastic rubbish we consider cheap now... I think I rather the old definition of 'cheap'!

[PaulS]

most post WW II Platignum models can still be found commonly in the U.K., but imagine vastly less so in Oz - not desirable enough perhaps to warrant the journey, which unfortunate if you want to collect some.

Since we appear not to have a picture of the smaller slightly later Gold Tone Quick Change - picture attached showing three examples - hope this is what jPod is referring to.

Picture also showing some of the Visi-Ink models and a pre war standard pen showing the better quality patterns of earlier models.

The pen in pieces is a Visi-Ink with three part barrel - small sac absent - it's a pen with large metal button, and suspect a lot less common than most of the other Visi-Inks.

Picture also of two drawers for Platignum - shows how it's possible to get carried away with cheap smelly pens

Edited November 18, 2018 by PaulS

[jPod]

Yes, very close. My one appears to be identical in design, nib, markings and cap (even my sac was just as twisted and horrible) to the OPs one, however the barrel patterns look more like the bottom pen in the first photo you posted PaulS.

 

And that is a glorious collection. Even if it is what is considered an average pen!

[PaulS]

so you have a push on cap rather than a screw on version. My opinion is that most of these things are below average - it's only a few that rise any higher - and as for the bent barrel ones, well ………………..

Very third tier as they say on the other side of the pond

Edited November 18, 2018 by PaulS

[jPod]

Yes, push cap.

 

Still, it is still an interesting item - as any old item. I still find it interesting that school children were given these styles of pens as standard issue. I did most of my schooling in the 90's and it was all plastic BIC ball points. I'd still rather the Platignum...

[PaulS]

I can see the reasoning for the preference if given a choice of just the two you mention - the ball pen was the ultimate destroyer of many people's hand writing - so Laslo get's the thumbs down, maybe My schooling was much earlier than yours - parents supplied their own children's pens - I really don't know what did happen if a parent informed the school they couldn't afford to buy their child a cheap pen such as Platignum - perhaps the school had a small stock of such things for the destitute.

A very few Platignum steel nibs - perhaps those with the spoon tip - are capable of writing without acting like a JCB and digging holes in the paper.

but agree 'old' is always fascinating - we have respect even for poor quality provided it's 'old'.

[eachan]

That's a remarkable collection of Platignums, Paul!

[eachan]

That's a remarkable collection of Platignums, Paul!

[jPod]

I can see the reasoning for the preference if given a choice of just the two you mention - the ball pen was the ultimate destroyer of many people's hand writing - so Laslo get's the thumbs down, maybe My schooling was much earlier than yours - parents supplied their own children's pens - I really don't know what did happen if a parent informed the school they couldn't afford to buy their child a cheap pen such as Platignum - perhaps the school had a small stock of such things for the destitute.

A very few Platignum steel nibs - perhaps those with the spoon tip - are capable of writing without acting like a JCB and digging holes in the paper.

but agree 'old' is always fascinating - we have respect even for poor quality provided it's 'old'.

 

This is very true! My other love is cars and the same stands there. Some absolutely atrocious cars, the Platignum of the car world so to speak can still be fascinating to look at and experience.

 

My other F.P's are an unknown make and model that I believe may be just a cheap job out of China. It has no branding on it whatsoever with only "IRIDIUM TIP" written on the partially gold plated nib. The body and cap is steel, finished in a brushed manner with chrome trimmings. It actually writes extremely well. My other one is a Waterman Maestro which I will hopefully be able to use when my replacement nib and section arrive and on its way from the UK is a Waterman Prefect and matching propelling pencil which I'm looking forward to seeing when it arrives.

 

Not as exquisite as your collection, but hopefully one day...

[sciumbasci]

Indeed Platignum should have a look at these photos - I don't think that recreating some of the models in the above picture would prove beyond the impossible for their Chinese OEM factories - their current lineup, although passable, seems to be nothing more than a fancy desk trinket: neatly displayed and admired, not for the rough writing days

Edited November 18, 2018 by sciumbasci

[jPod]

Indeed Platignum should have a look at these photos - I don't think that recreating some of the models in the above picture would prove beyond the impossible for their Chinese OEM factories - their current lineup, although passable, seems to be nothing more than a fancy desk trinket: nearly displayed and admired, not for the rough writing days

 

Yes, agreed and thoroughly underwhelmed by the current range. They even have a 'disposable' Fountain pen for about 2GBP! Because that is what we need in this world now, more disposable future landfill and less re-usable and well made equipment that lasts, is serviceable and classy. The apple may not have had far to fall, but it managed to fall anyway...