Reform Before Eversharp?

[Cryptos]

This just sold on that auction site. EoC did have a bid on it because it was kind of weird, but was not prepared to gamble too much. Anyway, there is the matter of the striking resemblance to the Eversharp Skyline. EoC can find nothing about this Reform model, and so here it is for the big boys to look over.

 

Just what is this thing?

 

 

[The Blue Knight]

There is a German pen company called Reform sort of a budget Pelikan comany. It's an Eversharp cap with a Reform pen body.

Edited November 25, 2015 by The Blue Knight

[tmenyc]

but it has a Reform clip! Did they knock off the Skyline or have a deal with Eversharp?

 

Tim

[Ink Stained Wretch]

but it has a Reform clip! Did they knock off the Skyline or have a deal with Eversharp?

 

I think The Blue Knight is saying that the cap and pen are not original to each other, that someone put a Skyline cap on a Reform pen.

 

Sure does look a lot like a Skyline cap.

[inkstainedruth]

But EoC is right -- it *does* say "Reform" on the clip (I looked at an enlargement of the first photo). Whether the band says "Skyline" or not I can't tell -- the photo isn't clear enough. But it does look a lot like the cap on the pen my M-i-L gave me in September (Skyline cap that had obviously been hers -- her [married] name was engraved on it -- on a Sheaffer Balance Oversize).

I know sufficiently little about both brands that I can't say beyond that. That is, I don't know if this pen is a frankenpen -- where the clip was replaced with what was handy -- or whether Reform made Skyline-style caps. Either is possible -- after all, how many brands made flattops? How many did cigar shapes? How many different brands used what looks like the same lapis blue celluloid (I'm thinking of Parker, Pelikan and Montblanc, right off the top)?]

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[rwilsonedn]

I believe tmenyc's point is that the clip is clearly stamped with the letters REFORM. The engraved cap band also does not look to me like Eversharp. So the question stands: was there a business relationship between Eversharp and Reform, or is this an egregious case of paying homage?

ron

[tmenyc]

an egregious case of paying homage?

 

Great term, gotta remember that one...

Tim

[Ernst Bitterman]

I'm inclined to think that it's probably a result of Reform trying to get its post-war legs under it by making something that doesn't look like any other pen in the German market yet is a known winner-- people may have wanted a Parker "51", but the Skyline was the biggest seller in wartime America, and one suspects Reform knew it. Between novelty for the home market and a degree of pandering to the tastes of the occupation forces, this might have been just the thing to set them back up.

 

I speculate, of course. However, apart from "across a dark and crowded room" similarity, there's enough difference between that pen and a Skyline that even if Eversharp could have reached across the Atlantic, it probably couldn't have supported an infringement case. Blunter tail, broader and more decorated band-- totally different, and with the depressed state of the DM at the time, who could resist the bargain?

 

Just for ease of comparision, here's a Skyline; sadly, I have no picture of one with a striped cap:

http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Eversharp-0163c.jpg

[Cryptos]

Here are some more images. This is not a case of a pen merely looking similar. The design by Dreyfuss of the Skyline cap is so distinctive that anything resembling it must clearly be a deliberate copy. EoC should probably have bid higher as this seems to be a really unusual pen given the circumstances. It was hoped someone else here may have seen one before, and could shed some light...

 

 

 

 

 

[Tweel]

I think Meneer Bitterman might be on to something. It's definitely decorative (I like the cap band), but look how cheap the nib is -- is that a folded tip?

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I can't contribute any answers, only another question. Is this a lever filler, like the Skyline, or didn't the ad say? The pictures don't seem to show it. Just thinking that it would be easy enough to make a cartridge pen in this shape, which would make it much later than immediate post-war. And if it was made that long afterward, then patent and trademark issues for a defunct product line and company would be less of a concern. All moot if it really is a lever filler, of course. Do we know?

[Cryptos]

Unfortunately the seller did not post a picture of the filling mechanism, nor provided a description of same. When chance permits EoC will send a message and see what they can tell us.

 

Interesting isn't it?

[jdllizard]

It sure looks like a direct ripoff of the Skyline to me, unless this Reform version pre-dates the Skyline?

 

It is quite interesting. Hopefully some useful info on its origins will be found.

[Ernst Bitterman]

Wow! There's still some plating on the point! I wonder how much all of us looking at a picture of it has rubbed off

[Cryptos]

Eh?

 

The seller has not responded as yet to an inquiry regarding the filling system.