Valentine Model No. 01

[PaulS]

Perhaps this was something for the fairer sex - would be too small for me to hold with comfort - only 115 mm long and slender with it. Came in with a small group of charity shop pens earlier this week, and is the first Valentine I've found, though I've not made a special effort for them, but in view of their absence assume they're fairly uncommon.

Almost certainly 'lined cream silver and brown' which was possibly one of the original Duofold colours used by Valentine - though it lacks the brighter colour of its near relative, 'lined rose silver and burgundy' - Parker appear to have retained this colour for their Duofolds.

This one has a Warranted 14 ct. nib - did Valentine make their own, or buy them in? - in view of the apparent slightly haphazard business life of the factory, then it might have been the latter.

According to Steve Hull's 'The English Fountain Pen Industry', there was another model designated 00, so possibly smaller still - and this 1940s range included the 00, 01, 02, 03, and 04 - all look to have been inexpensive pens.

 

P.S. my tweaking with Picasa was possibly a tad uncontrolled - in the flesh this colourway is slightly less mushroomy brown than it appears in my picture, apologies - can't really think of a more correct word for it - a brown brown perhaps.

Edited September 7, 2017 by PaulS

[northlodge]

This pen appears in a number of guises, as a Valentine, a Savoy, a Stephens, and a Summit s.100, to name a few.

 

It is quite possible that yours was made by Valentine, or indeed that they were all made by Valentine under contract, or indeed that they were all made by Lang (which would be the favourite in my eyes).

 

I think the Valentine would have originally had a valentine nib, but then Lang had the capability to provide 'branded' nibs but often stuck with warranted examples even on their own items.

 

The price variation on these pens are interesting; same pen with a different brand name and the price variation can be 100%+

 

Almost as strange as why a black Conway 58 is worth only a fraction of a black Conway 58 that has a few squiggly white marks along its length.

[PaulS]

thanks for the informative reply. My learning curve here is steep, and ignorance still rampant - regret I'm unsure of the meaning of those last few words, sorry. Is it simply to do with the barrel imprint appearing white?

[mallymal1]

I think Northlodge is humorously comparing the price difference between a black CS 58, and a "Cracked Ice" 58.

 

The smaller pens, Paul, were sometimes designed to fit a shirt pocket.

 

Nice looking pen.

[peterg]

Valentines most certainly produced their own nibs. Their move to Newhaven was the result of purchasing Felix Macauley and Gold Nibs Ltd.

 

As said before, based on the Duofold, that is pretty well the standard British pen of the 1930/40's. With differing ironware it could have been made by any of the British manufacturers from Burnham to Wyvern. I have no doubt that Valentine's made that pen and that all the others made very similar pens.

 

It is obvious why the other '58' is worth so much more. Think of all the time it took for craftsmen to gouge out the channels, fill them with white and polish out the surface (other) Paul.

[northlodge]

 

 

It is obvious why the other '58' is worth so much more. Think of all the time it took for craftsmen to gouge out the channels, fill them with white and polish out the surface (other) Paul.

 

I know, I spent almost 2 years of my apprenticeship learning that skill, but then the master-craftsman left before teaching me how to apply the same technique to the interior of the barrel

 

On a more serious note, I have previously done some comparison on the pens I listed above and found that the parts were all fully interchangeable. This would be expected if the all originated from a single source, but if the came from different manufacturers then I would have thought this unlikely. The pens are identical in every way except the barrel stamp, and (occasionally) that the Valentine has a branded clip, the S.100 has a plain clip, and the others usually have no clip at all.

[PaulS]

- gosh, such ribbing of newcomers - sounds a bit like 'pass me a left handed screwdriver'. thanks for the information.

 

My S.100 has a barrel imprint telling me it's a 'CADET MODEL' and its clip, which is chrome plated is stamped SUMMIT - the lever is of the same metal, as is the cap ring, although the nib is a SUMMIT 14 ct.

My S.125 is identical in every respect except that the furniture is gilded/plated.

 

I have a Stephens l.f. No. 106 - the clip is unmarked - but yes, you can see the physical similarity between these pens.

[northlodge]

There are more variations on the S.100 than you would imagine. See here:

 

http://summit.wesonline.org.uk/section104.html

 

I can assure you there was no intent on my part to pull your leg, and I am equally sure Peter would say the same. The difference in perceived value of what is basically the same pen is always a head scratcher. If you want another then there is the DLR 1330 model and the Boots Chatsworth model, both identical (on occasion) yet usually with quite different price points.

[Azuniga]

I do not know more about Valentine that what Stephen Hulls says in his book about this brand but I have some I got from a Dutch friend…

 

From left to right , the first two are numbered 02, from the third to the eight numbered 04, the light gray (9^th) is marked 50 and the other two have no number.

All of them have the same print in the barrel The Valentine Pen Co. Ltd. Made in England. The gray one (9^th) print only shows Valentine. Those with blind caps are PBF and the other ones LF. Four clips do not have an imprint and the other ones says Valentine. All the nibs are printed Valentine 14 CT 1^st quality.

 

I thought it could help to put more information together…

 

[PaulS]

I wasn't being serious about the leg-pulling - it's good to have a little humour on occasions - if I could restrict my collecting to fewer brands, it would help with understanding better the extent of variation in models such as the S.100.

 

Azuniga's pens are very attractive and show what it's possible to accumulate within a single brand - thanks for adding this information.

[ChrisBC]

Hello

 

First time poster hoping someone might be able to help with a query about a Valentine 02 I recently picked up at a car boot sale.  Thought it might be logical to add to this old Valentine thread rather than start a new thread, hope that's ok?  The pen does not have a clip and there seems to be no marks on the cap to indicate that it ever did.  Is it likely that some 02s might have been sold without a clip?

 

Many thanks

 

Chris

 

 

[Azuniga]

20 hours ago, ChrisBC said:

Hello

 

First time poster hoping someone might be able to help with a query about a Valentine 02 I recently picked up at a car boot sale.  Thought it might be logical to add to this old Valentine thread rather than start a new thread, hope that's ok?  The pen does not have a clip and there seems to be no marks on the cap to indicate that it ever did.  Is it likely that some 02s might have been sold without a clip?

 

Many thanks

 

Chris

 

 

 

I do not know if they produced pens without a clip, but in the first image there is a band at the top of the cap, it is then possible that it had a clip once, although it does not really need one... Thanks for showing it. It is a beautiful pen, no doubt

[ChrisBC]

Thank you Azuniga.  I had a good magnified look at the clip screw/cap junction and I just can't see any sign that there might have been a clip.  The pen itself is slightly translucent, and you can make out the internal threads.  Theoretically I guess then that the clip screw could have been loosened, the clip (or its remnants) removed and the clip screw tighten up snug to the cap itself.  Oddly it kinda feels right without a clip!

 

Chris