One Of The Coolest Patterns Ever

[Greenie]

Too bad most of the FPN folks won't look in this forum to see this. Their loss!

 

Macniven & Cameron, Made in Great Britain, Waverly Series No P 5

 

This is a casein pen (based on smell while I sanded it down to restore the color and finish). Small pen, 4 1/2 inches capped, posts to a nice usable 5 5/8 size. It came to me in a sorry state with a bent nib, barrel thread crack (now sleeved internally), and very dark, brown and crackly on the surface.

 

I was just so drawn to the pattern I had to buy it and put in some work to restore it!

 

Unfortunately, I know nothing about the brand, history, or other models they might have produced.

 

 

[mitto]

Beautiful pen. Never heared before about the brand, though.

[Cob]

"They come as a boon and a blessing to men, the Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley pen."

 

A slogan from this company from the time that "pen" meant what we call today a nib.

 

What a beauty Greenie!

 

Macniven & Cameron's origins date back to the late 18th century when they began in Edinburgh as wholesalers. In the middle of the 19th century, they began to produce their own nibs including the beautiful Waverley nib; these were made initially by specialist manufacturers - nib-makers. The company moved to Birmingham, the pen capital of England early last century where they produced fountain pens but there was for a time a factory in London. The company survived into the 1970s, but fountain pen manufacture had ceased decades beforehand

 

I have no dates concerning the manufacture of Casein pens ; I did own one myself for a time, a "Waverley Stainless" in a pretty casein material but cannot find the photos! The last pens produced under the Waverley name as far as I know were made in the late 1940s or early 1950s. These were eye-droppers made I was told by Burnham and which were supplied to the civil service in tropical parts of the British Empire; the tropical conditions apparently rotted the rubber sacs very quickly, hence the use of eye-droppers. I had one of these and it had the delightful gold Waverley nib which was semi-flexible. And I still have a MHR "Waverley No 3" Frankenpen fitted with a nice Mabie Todd NY stub nib. This pen has the famous thistle shaped clip - a nod to the company's Scottish origins.

 

Cob

Edited October 25, 2017 by Cob

[johnboz]

That pattern is amazing! I've never seen anything like it. Thanks for sharing.

[inkstainedruth]

That's a beautiful pen. I had never heard of the brand before either (but that's not saying all that much, admittedly).

Before you start doing any of the work, make sure you read up about casein -- I seem to recall a thread from several years ago in which someone said that you shouldn't soak casein in water -- and maybe not even bring it in contact with water at all.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Azuniga]

Beautiful pattern indeed... Thanks for sharing

 

It is good to read the information from Cob, since I own one of those eyedroppers from the late 40's he mentioned.

[PaulS]

a real cracker - on the screen it looks to be something like mop against an almost lapis blue. don't know whether this pattern has a name - those radiating arms have something of a floral/petal look, and it made me think of Japanese chrysanthemum - or perhaps a sun-ray look.

 

Earlier this year I bought a pen with similar patterning - but nowhere near as striking ........... the seller said it was a British Platignum, but I had my doubts - though looking through the Marshall & Oldfield repair manual there is a Platignum Visi-Ink which does look to be the same pattern as mine - page 187 (third edition). Perhaps this was where my seller had got his information, and maybe he is correct, though my pen is only a b.f. and not a VISI-INK. All that I can read on my barrel is MADE IN ENGLAND, and the nib just says WARANTED 1ST QUALITY.

 

I've rubbed my pen in the hope the genie might appear, but didn't get that addictive celluloid pong - so assume mine is casein too.

 

Anyway, congrats on one of the most attractive pens I've seen for a while.

[goodpens]

Too bad most of the FPN folks won't look in this forum to see this. Their loss!

 

I recently discovered the "View New Content" link. Glad I did--I get to see cool stuff like this. Thanks for sharing your beautiful find.

[peterg]

What does the section and nib look like PaulS?

[eachan]

What a beautiful pen! Macniven & Cameron made a wide range of pens from cheap and flimsy squeeze fillers to very high quality Duofold lookalikes in jade and lapis lazuli. These pens – and some others – had a clip imprint of Sir Walter Scott in recognition of their early years in the Waverley area of Edinburgh and his Waverley novels. Many of their pens bore their famous leaf-shaped gold nib, a memory of their famous Waverley dip-pen nib.

[PaulS]

nothing very spectacular I'm afraid Peter, as you can see. What is your opinion?

[Greenie]

PaulS

I do believe that yours is the same pattern but on a red background.

 

I will need to post the "ugly" views of mine - the pattern condenses in two longitudinal stripes 180 degrees from each other. That might shed some light on whether or not your red and my blue are basically the same plastic.

 

Peterg

 

My pen has a very Onoto like section that is rounded on the distal end, and not flat like almost everyone else. I would also be curious about the section on the "beige-mop-on-red" patterned pen.

 

 

addend - posts crossed while posting

Edited October 25, 2017 by Greenie

[LanceSaintPaul]

What a stunner! And you've returned its youthful appearance. Well done! (as I'm sure the pen says to you every time you look at it). It's exciting. Maybe a bit Nouveau.

 

The red one featured above might become more exciting if refinished, although it has nothing to be ashamed of, either.

 

Makes me curious about these kinds of patterns - my first exposure to them.

 

Thanks to both posters for revealing these.

[fountainpagan]

PaulS

I do believe that yours is the same pattern but on a red background.

 

Peterg

 

 

I agree.

 

And, PaulS, that one is an absolute stunner, too. Congratulations.

[PaulS]

have to admit that I cheated too and like Greenie showed off the best view of my pen. Likewise with the red pen, there are two longitudinal dark lines, something like 180 degrees apart, one of which you can see in the attached picture. When the cap is screwed in place the dark lines on the barrel almost line up with those on the cap - could be just be coincidence of course.

Why there should be these dark stripes/lines I've no idea, but Marshall & Oldfield comment that casein is 'A natural polymer from rennet and skimmed milk, hardened by formaldehyde treatment.' - so just possible when in a liquid or semi liquid state there is some settling out of colour depending on orientation of the material - just a thought.

This looks to be an uncommon pattern - perhaps it's not achievable with celluloid? sorry the pix are a bit rubbishy.

[peterg]

It looks to me as though it was made by Lang's or possibly Valentine's for M&C, but I am not aware of them using caseine, Paul. Very similar in design to some of the pens sold by Unique but again, I suspect they were made for them too.

[PaulS]

thanks for that peterg - I'll give some more time to squinting with the Belomo to try find what lies above the words MADE IN ENGLAND, but don't hold out too much hope.

[Greenie]

PaulS

 

Yep. That is exactly how mine looks. My pen has those same dark stripes. I wonder if they are broad seams? Unless someone has a better understanding of how casein patterns were made, we might never know.

[pen2paper]

Each material has its limitations, but this is quite wonderful even with the bare area. (glad you showed both so we could understand).

Milk based casein here appears to be adapted to look like the other plasticized natural material (cotton wood fiber) celluloid, which also adapted itself to appear like molded chunky colorful phenolics when that became wildly popular, though celluloids best use (as seen in pens) was swirling depth + intricate patterns of solid & transparent. <edit to include, what the casein appears to be imitating).

 

Thanks for sharing!

Edited October 27, 2017 by pen2paper

[Greenie]

The stripes seem to have a compressed version of the pattern (at least that is how it looks to me)

 

Here is the cap with "normal" very bright light to show the dark area better

 

 

And the barrel lit up very bright, so the area hardly looks dark at all, but the pattern is more easily seen