Eagle Pens - Flea Market Fun

[gweimer1]

I found these at my local flea market haunt last week. Interesting and fun pens. I would like to know a little more about them, particularly since the last one on the right appears to be the same pen pictured in the Jonathan Steinberg reference book. The nibs on all are good, the finish as you see, is aged, and I have two glass cartridges (extremely fragile). Basically, after finding out just how fragile one was, I am leaving them alone.

 

What have I got here? I have been using the middle one as a dip pen, and really like it.

 

 

[Larry Barrieau]

I have two of the middle hexagon pen in the middle. It was first patented in 1890 according to Richard binder. Search "eagle metal pen" on his site.

[AAAndrew]

The first real cartridge pens. Early Eagle fountain pens. I have the one on the left and on the right. The brass one has an intact glass cartridge, but not the swirl one.

 

They affixed to the section via a rubber nipple which is always hard and dried up. Eagle knew how to make a good nib, even though they only started making steel pens in 1889.

 

These would work well as traveling dip pens, as long as youre careful to rinse and dry after use.

 

Nice find!

Edited June 4, 2018 by AAAndrew

[Greenie]

The nipple to hold the glass was a softer white rubber. The glass vials came with a cork. You uncork the vial and push the inside of the section into the vial, then insert the vial and section into the pen. They can be restored, but these are probably more interesting as historical pens, and can be used as dip pens as you have found out.

 

The came in the interesting spiral you have. I like that one as the cap spirals on to the barrel.

There were also round ones and hexagonal ones. Most were painted black. A ring is found on the outside of the barrel to keep the cap from hitting the end of the nib.

 

Your heaxagonal one in the middle is a less common style than the black painted ones.

 

They date from the 1890s. The feeds are usually a Trident shape underneath, although there seem to be some quality issues with varying asymmetry of the lateral parts of the feeds. They are found with steel nibs.

 

As levers and "self filling" pens became the norm, Eagle continued to use metal tubes as the base of their pens with the same feeds and steel nibs. However, they used somewhat thicker red rubber sacs. Coin fillers were common - just a slot cut out so you could depress a J bar. They also made a blow filler of the metal tube style pen, which is, of course, just a hole at the butt end to blow on to compress the sac. Black and orange paint were typical, likely to emulate hard rubber pens, but white and varying colored marble painted treatments are also seen. The blow fillers are enameled, but the enamel is textured to look like chasing on black hard rubber.

[BamaPen]

I have an Eagle that seems to be much like Greenie has described: It is made of metal, enameled with a "chasing" imprint. The end of the barrel has a hole, so it must be a blow filler.

 

The part that has me confused is that when I pulled the section out, there was attached to it a long cylindrical object that you will see in the accompanying pictures. Unfortunately, when I just touched that item, it began to shatter and appears to be ceramic. It originally slipped over a wooden "nipple" on the section, There is no evidence of any sort of flexible ink sac at all.

 

I suppose that the cylindrical object could have once been a thick rubber sac, but it is perfectly formed and very tan in color. Any ideas here?

 

 

 

[BamaPen]

I also have a black hard rubber eyedropper with a slip cap. I'm not sure that the cap is original, although it is a perfect fit, because it is chased and the barrel shows no evidence of chasing. The barrel has an Eagle Pencil Company imprint, so it does not appear that the chasing was worn down. The nib is imprinted 14K with those letters surrounded by a shield shaped outline.

[Greenie]

I can confirm that the pen posted by Bamapen has the original sac. Both the ones I have had sac with a plug in the end just as shown. It behaved just like the sac on a lever filler on the rare occasion it just comes out with the section. Old rubber sacs are thin and very brittle.

[BamaPen]

So, the tan "ceramic" thing is actually a very old rubber sac, and my pen is a blow filler? That's what it sounds like.

 

I'm assuming that the sac was made from a rubber tube with a plug in the end, rather than being molded as a sac like we are accustomed to. That makes perfect sense because these pens were made so early that nobody would have been making purpose-made ink sacs at that time. A "sac" made from a tube and a plug would be something that could be made using off the shelf materials.

 

Now, as I said, my "sac" is so fragile that just handling it causes more pieces to break off the open end. Is there any possible way to preserve the intact portion - other than "don't handle it"??

[Greenie]

All you can do to preserve the old sac is just try to leave it alone.

 

I wonder when these conversations are better in the history forum, and when they should be in the regional USA forum?

[sidthecat]

I have something very much like your striated job on the right, though I think yours is a little nicer. The ring allows you to draw the nib into the barrel while traveling, which prevents damage to your delicate, ultra-flexible 19th-century nib, which I’d suggest trying.