In Search Of At0316-7 (A Missing Sauvage)

September 20, 2018

This is a bit of an essay! Apologies.

The first Sauvage F.P. (as I understand it) was the Moonstone Blue (AT 0316-1). It was one of four styles listed in the 2008 catalog. By 2010 the Moonstone had disappeared, only to be replaced by new styles: the ever-popular Azurite Blue and the Stingray. The Stingray F.P. was AT 0316-6.

The next Sauvage was Ivory/Pearl. It appeared in 2011 listed as AT 0316-13

In 2012 the first of the "Zodiac" pens appeared: the "Dragon" pens, black and red, AT 0316-8 and AT 0316-9.

The eagle-eyed will spot that between the 2010 Stingray and the 2012 Dragon there was a theoretical AT 0316-7. I have never seen one.

I can think of three possibilities-

1. It never existed. Cross hopped over 7. (This possibility is the least exciting and the most likely.)

2. There is an unlisted Sauvage, in an unknown style.

3. There was a prototype 7 that never went into full production.

Can anyone throw light on the "missing" AT 0316-7 ?

PS - The FP serial would be AT 0316-7. The rollerball, if it existed 0315-7, and the ballpoint 0312-7.

PPS - I have never had much luck asking such question of Cross, but if anyone knows of a contact, that would be great too.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Braxfield

September 21, 2018

I have no specific information, but from keeping a list of Townsend models I know that there are "skips" in the model/SKU numbers there, for sure. I don't think they're pens I haven't discovered -- I think they are numbers that were used for some other purpose (e.g., a prototype that never made it to market) or that were skipped for some other reason. Still, I'd love to be proven wrong, even after all these years, and find a new Townsend or five I've never known about before. Hopefully your Sauvage search will yield equally amazing results.

September 22, 2018

I have seen Cross pens on Ebay described as "prototypes". I don't know what that means exactly. A true prototype would (presumably) exist in very limited numbers. I could imagine such "prototypes" might feature in a product selection process. A different category might be the pen that is produced in limited numbers to establish the efficacy of a particular manufacturing process. A third category would be the proposed variant that never was. Sauvage #7 might have been planned as Brushed Unobtainium with chrome appointments until they discovered unobtainium was unobtainable.

Until I establish otherwise, I will assume that 0316-7 exists. If only conceptually.

Or as Tom Lehrer would put it-

"There's onyx, and python ivory,

blue moonstone and tourmaline,

azurite and stingray and

one that no-one's ever seen."

Edited September 22, 2018 by Braxfield

September 22, 2018

What I take from the "skips" is that the lead time varies. That is to say, the "commissioning" sequence differs from the "release" sequence. And of course some commissions may never be released. I can't help but think that if Cross were as attuned to the modern fountain pen market as some of its rivals they would be less reticent about this type of info. What we need is a catalogue raisonné. Designer info, the lot.