Two Unusual Bexleys

[penmanila]

i just picked up two very pretty and rather unusual bexleys off ebay--one in red marble with a gold band, and another sheathed in titanium (at least that's what the seller says). the seller also says that the sections come from parker duofold pens (making this a franken-bexley of sorts), although as far as i can tell, being a duofold fan as well, they're nothing like the modern duofold sections i have (which have one or two bands at the collar near the nib). it would be neat if they were indeed threaded for duofold feeds and nibs, so i can replace the bexley nib with 18K duofold units. at any rate, they were very reasonably priced for big bexleys, or shall we say pens with bexley nibs or parts.

 

has anyone seen these models before or know anything about them? might they have been one-offs created off a hobbyist's lathe (wouldn't mind if they were)?

 

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll296/penmanila/T2eC16ZHJIIE9qTYLS0rBQv7dJ5nDQ60_1_zpsa2818052.jpg

 

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll296/penmanila/T2eC16VHJHIE9nyseFynBQv7dUbEZw60_1_zps18fb1beb.jpg

 

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll296/penmanila/KGrHqZHJFMFCg8cI6yfBQv7Sd6T5w60_58_zps7d5fa43c.jpg

 

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll296/penmanila/T2eC16RHJF0E9nmFSHHBQv7SLmYkg60_58_zpsa111c950.jpg

[ajcoleman]

I am afraid I can't help you at all with your questions, but they are both nice looking pens. Enjoy!

[iamchum]

I have never really seen or heard of a duofold bexley frankenpen but that titanium sheathed one looks cool Almost steampunk esque. Looks like it could take a beating

[risingsun]

I think Bexley has a history of experimenting like this... Somewhere, I remember someone advertising a Watley (maybe on Zorn's website?) which is a Waterman/Bexley combo, much like these.

[MKeith]

Here's a good Bexley reference site.

 

http://www.parkvillepen.com/bexleycollection.html

Edited December 23, 2012 by MKeith

[penmanila]

many thanks, all. yes, i've seen the "watley" and i think it's cool--a great new life for NOS waterman nibs. frankly i don't really see the parker element in these two pens, and they could be bexley through and through. the thing about bexleys (at least the ones i have) is that, aside from the B on the clip and the "bexley" on the nib, they don't really sport barrel imprints to identify themselves as bexleys.

[watch_art]

those look like regular Bexley sections and (jowo) nibs to me...

nothing parker at all.

[vannesspen]

I have some early Bexley pens that use the Waterman LeMan 200 nib and section. Bexley is not printed on the pen anywhere nor does it have the "B" clip.

 

Photos courtesy of Vintagepen.net

Edited December 24, 2012 by vannesspen

[watch_art]

Wow! I had no idea about those.

[risingsun]

Ron Zorn has a similar (but not identical) Watley (WATerman/bexLEY) on his for sale page, pen #1702, on this page:

http://www.mainstreetpens.com/pensales.htm

[georges zaslavsky]

pretty interesting, thanks for sharing

[penmanila]

so the bexleys arrived today (here in the philippines)--happy new year!

 

they were even more wonderful than i imagined they would be, and i'll show why, but first, a pic of the two pens:

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8326/8361508290_041527b3c3_z.jpg

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8075/8360452937_dc29abfcb3_z.jpg

 

you'll see that one is bigger than the other (something i didn't expect--they were sold separately, so i never saw them side-by-side before this). i'd soon see the sense of the difference in size.

 

i can now see why the seller thought that they were a mix of bexley and parker parts--they're actually all bexley, no parker at all in them, but just as i suspected, they're the size of the parker duofold centennial (the red one) and international (the titanium), respectively--and more than size, they're threaded to receive and to use the sections and nibs of the duofolds!

 

here's the red bexley as is:

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8506/8360350975_9447acfb49_z.jpg

 

and here it is, with a section and nib from my greenwich centennial:

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8238/8361415502_452503d0c2_z.jpg

 

here's the bexley and the centennial side by side (i didn't take a pic, but the same holds for the titanium bexley and the international--same size, same swap):

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8183/8361417486_77d2dab92a_z.jpg

 

and as a final, fun touch, i decided to replace the generic steel schmidt nib (it didn't even have the bexley name on it) on the titanium pen with what i think should be the perfect replacement--a stipula titanium 1.1 nib, which i just happened to have lying around. so now it's truly a titanium pen with a nib just also happens to flex beautifully:

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8354/8360345355_d4809540e3_z.jpg

 

nice, too, that the pens were priced very reasonably (i wondered why no one else picked them up, as they had been on buy-it-now for quite a while). now i really want to know from the bexley experts here if they'd encountered these models before, or if they might be prototypes, and also if other bexleys have this same amazing swappability with parker duofolds (which i also collect, so i guess i'm in luck parts-wise).

 

thanks for looking!

[superfreeka]

That titanium one looks great, especially with the replacement nib.

[penmanila]

thanks--i was very pleasantly surprised how easy it was to swap things around. even the nib was simply friction-fit.

[Ron Z]

These pens were made for Mike Conway by Bexley, and were for sale at the Ohio Pen show back in November. Jud Pearlson picked up some and has been selling them on eBay.

I don't know about the larger pen, but the Parker International nib units will screw into the pen should you want to "upgrade." The nib that is in the pen is a Jowo (pronounced YoVo) #5 nib, which means that you can buy a #5 JoWo gold nib from Brian Gray.

[iamchum]

the titanium one looks a treat, where did you get the t-flex nib from?

[chris burton]

Nice pens. I love the titanium one.

[penmanila]

Many thanks for the information, Ron. That clears up a lot of things. It's good to know there's more of them with Jud--I know he also sold a blue version of the big red pen.

 

I found the t-flex nib orphaned on another vintage Pilot that my wife won in a raffle in our pen club. (I traded her a nice carmine Sheaffer Balance for it). It had been with me but a week when the titanium Bexley turned up. Serendipity?

Edited January 9, 2013 by penmanila

[Pentangeli]

The 1.1 italic titanium nib you transplanted on your Bexley Titanium pen is a Stipula Ventidue (22) nib. The number 22 is clearly visible on the nib's topside. The Ventidue is discontinued collectible pen and you have its nib. Very nice!

[tutelman]

Well this discussion helped get me hooked! Here's the titanium model I just won, in one of Judd Perl's e-Bay auctions, in red.