Early Demise Of Fp's

[nigelg]

Seen on Shorpy yesterday - B&M store closing.

Does this imply the demise of FP's started earlier than anyone thought ?

[Pickwick]

A new era with on-line shopping, even major stores have been closing down across this country Macys, Sears, Nordstrom as an example and moving to the internet. With this new technology a vaster number of products can be offered than could possibly be stocked thereby cutting dramatically costs operating a B&M store. Rentals in the major high streets are colossally high. These are some of the factors driving the retail industry in using electronic resources.

 

So it's not the demise of the fountain pen if the differing varieties offered on the internet is anything to go by.

[jar]

Seen on Shorpy yesterday - B&M store closing.

Does this imply the demise of FP's started earlier than anyone thought ?

Did you get your link correct? I followed your link and it was a picture of a rainy day in 1908.

[nigelg]

Seems the link is working for you, It is of a rainy day in 1908. Just scroll the photo to the right and look at the hoarding on the side of the building just above the guy in white with the hand cart.

(My comment is, of course, a bit tongue in cheek.)

[Pickwick]

Seems the link is working for you, It is of a rainy day in 1908. Just scroll the photo to the right and look at the hoarding on the side of the building just above the guy in white with the hand cart.

(My comment is, of course, a bit tongue in cheek.)

 

You should have given the hint in the first place! The notice just states closing out sale, not the the store is closing down.

[nigelg]

 

You should have given the hint in the first place! The notice just states closing out sale, not the the store is closing down.

 

Mea Culpa. I suppose that would have been simpler. I think this is my misunderstanding of the term "close out" - not an expression used very much this side of the pond. Although in my defence, m'lud, the comments appear to indicate that the building involved is about to be re-developed so the close out might be a start to the close down.

Also, someone has posted in the Shorpy comments for this picture an advert for the Laughlin Fountain Pen and ink pencil made by the Laughlin Manufacturing Company in Detriot. Anyone here have an example?

[Pickwick]

 

Mea Culpa. I suppose that would have been simpler. I think this is my misunderstanding of the term "close out" - not an expression used very much this side of the pond. Although in my defence, m'lud, the comments appear to indicate that the building involved is about to be re-developed so the close out might be a start to the close down.

Also, someone has posted in the Shorpy comments for this picture an advert for the Laughlin Fountain Pen and ink pencil made by the Laughlin Manufacturing Company in Detriot. Anyone here have an example?

 

My dear friend someone once quoted we are two nations divided by a common language. An English friend of mine was visiting and dining in a restaurant here ordered potato "Chips" with his meal and was surprised when the Waitress returned with a bag you Brits call "Crisps"! Usually a close out is defined as the sale of an item bought up from a factory or warehouse wholesale because it is a discontinued line.

[AAAndrew]

Great photo! Love Shorpy.

 

I think I've solved the question. This is from the Detroit Free Press, Dec. 17, 1908, page 2. It seems the building was going to be torn down to make way for the new bank building and they were being forced out.

 

 

I'll post this on Shorpy as well.

[nigelg]

 

My dear friend someone once quoted we are two nations divided by a common language. An English friend of mine was visiting and dining in a restaurant here ordered potato "Chips" with his meal and was surprised when the Waitress returned with a bag you Brits call "Crisps"! Usually a close out is defined as the sale of an item bought up from a factory or warehouse wholesale because it is a discontinued line.

 

I should know better. While on a family vacation in Florida, my son caused much confusion (and hilarity) by asking for tomato sauce instead of ketchup.

 

Thanks to AAAndrew. The advert explains all.

 

Oh for a time machine. "I'll have two of everything, please, Mr. Laughlin."

[inkstainedruth]

Did you get your link correct? I followed your link and it was a picture of a rainy day in 1908.

 

That's what I got, too....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[rwilsonedn]

 

I should know better. While on a family vacation in Florida, my son caused much confusion (and hilarity) by asking for tomato sauce instead of ketchup.

 

Thanks to AAAndrew. The advert explains all.

 

Oh for a time machine. "I'll have two of everything, please, Mr. Laughlin."

 

I suppose that will be our first warning that someone in the future will invent a working time machine. As soon as a pen shop announces a going-out-of-business sale, a mysterious stranger will appear and buy the entire stock.

ron

[AAAndrew]

With the pics on Shorpy, most of the fun is checking out all of the details. They can be amazingly useful in dating images. I once help date an image to the week when it was taken because of an ad for a George M. Cohan production in a shop window.

[AAAndrew]

The case gets curious. This looks like in December of 1910 they're still at 133 Griswold.

 

 

 

And according to Historic Detroit, the Dime Building, the one that was built on this location, wasn't opened until 1912.

http://historicdetroit.org/building/dime-building/

 

So, it looks like their 1908 Closing Out sale was just a wee bit premature.

 

Now I'm curious to find out more about Laughlin Pens.

[rwilsonedn]

"So, it looks like their 1908 Closing Out sale was just a wee bit premature. :)"

 

Or, as previously suggested, it was a close-out, in the modern sense, of a particular product line.

ron

[AAAndrew]

I suspect they were told "Got to move, we're going to tear down the building" but then delays and delays kept that from happening. They do say in the original ad that they want people to start to go to their "Wholesale Office" in the Majestic Building as soon as their office is torn down. That sounds like more than just getting rid of a line of pens.

 

Now I'm very curious about Laughlin pens. Anyone have pictures?

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Seen on Shorpy yesterday - B&M store closing.

Does this imply the demise of FP's started earlier than anyone thought ?

 

Oh, I like that photograph . A view of what ordinary life was like on the street of a big city 109 years ago. Yeah, that I find that sort of thing fascinating.

[swordofthedove]

This is from Richard Binders Site:

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/glossary/L.htm

 

(Laughlin Manufacturing Company) A pen manufacturing company located in Detroit, Michigan; founded in 1896 by James W. Laughlin. Until c. 1912, the company produced eyedropper-filling pens that were of high quality but otherwise ordinary for their time. In 1912, Laughlin received U.S. Patent No 1,042,695 for a clever sliding-barrel thumb filler, and his company immediately put his design (illustrated below) into production. (Interestingly, he assigned the patent to his wife, Catherine.) In about 1926, the Laughlin company ceased production and sold its assets to the Carter’s Ink Company, which then produced fountain pens for about six years. Laughlin did not dissolve his company, however; documents exist showing that it was still in the fountain pen business as late as 1943.

[rbrummer]

I'm reading these ads and noting the "guaranteed 14k" assertion - so I'm thinking the Laughlin nib I have may actually be 14K even though it isn't marked correctly. So replacement or not (it's in a Swan pen) I'd be interested in hearing theories.