And Then, There Is Joffe

[DanDeM]

To borrow from Dorothy Parker, some of these pens are not to be taken lightly. They should be swung with both hands at a curve ball.

It all began with this.



If the pencil cone had been black, it could have been a very stately pen. As presented, it is probably the homeliest pen I had ever seen. I had to have it. Groom it. Give all of its 6.2 inches a safe home. It carries a 14k Warranted medium nib, and the more than half-inch wide barrel swallowed a #22 sac with room to spare. The ball end Z clip shows the letter "J" in an inverted triangle and the name JOFFE in stacked letters. That imprint is repeated on the lever.

Then all went quiet.

Two years later this vest Moss Agate arrived in need of much TLC.



Humble by comparison, only 4.3 inches long, it took a new nib, JBar and sac before it could nestle comfortably next to the big Black & Tan Combo. With two flat-tops in hand and that Moss Agate celluloid with casein bands, they began to suggest products from the early, maybe mid ’30’s.

A few more years went by, and pens just dribbled in. But these were all classics.

The first was this svelte black & pearl combo. Looking back to my notes, I see that I gave two hours to get the tarnish and corrosion off the clip. It certainly sat-up and smiled for the camera.



It carries a Warranted, 14k, #4, firm fine nib.

Then a pen that is an icon of the era, a really big hard rubber Big Red.



Again with a Warranted 14k nib, this a #8 medium.

And finally another paean to Parker, this poor man’s Mandarin with yet another Warranted nib.



These are all full, if not over-size pens. The Black & Pearl combo is 5.7 inches, the Big Red 5.3 inches and the Mandarin flat-top 5.1 inches. They all have nice heft. Their major fault is a generic nib, and perhaps a little skimpy on the plating. So now I’m beginning to think for sure early 30’s, late 20’s. And just who is this Joffe who made swanky pens like these and then that Black & Tan clunker that started it all? Couldn’t find a shred of info.

Acquisitions ended for quite a while. The pens sat quietly in an Odds-and-Ends pen case along with Eagles, Packards, and Welches…all of those stragglers that somehow accumulate in a pen nut’s collection. Then, within a couple of months, two nice surprises. One confirmed that whoever designed the Black & Tan Combo didn’t get fired. He went on to greater glory.



Another big pen, 6.2 inches long with another Warranted nib. Nothing shy about this bruiser that further established their presence in the 30’s, but this most recent arrival extended the production life of the brand well into the 40’s…



and along with the handsome extruded fluted material, it introduces some interesting manufacturing steps.

1.The section is threaded. I hate screw in sections. You can do a lot of damage opening a pen before you realize that it’s lefty/loosey. And then there is the bother of screwing it back in place without cork-screwing the sac. Fussy, and for me, impossible to get the nib to align with the lever.

2.The other surprise is that they didn’t cut threads into the barrel. That little gold band between the section and the barrel is actually a threaded washer. The cap, which does have threads, screws onto that washer.

The final short cut is the nib, marked:
Curvex
14K
Gold Plate
USA

No gold Warranted nib for this.

The arrow, washer clip is held by a black end-cap. (I call it a Bald Parker clip…it has the point, but lost the feathers) Light in the hand, the set has none of the quality that was expected, and that the brand delivered in the 30’s.

And now for all of that itchy, eye glazing stuff that makes pen reviews sound scholarly, erudite, learned; authoritative.

(CueFanfare..Ta rum ta raaa)

After years of exhaustive research I can say without doubt:

The name is JOFFE.
The brand logo is the letter "J" in an inverted triangle.

The Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series, Volume 1, Parts 3-4, Number 1, January - June 1947,
(Published by the Copyright Office, The Library of Congress, Washington D.C.) page 35 carries this entry:

Joffe pen co. New York.
Back again for volume sales: 59¢
sellers. (Fountain pens -mechanical
pencils) sheet. Print. @25Feb47;
KK10497

(“Back again”? Where were they?)

The Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, Volume 14 (published in 1895 and apparently a listing of businesses that had been inspected), page 231 lists:

Joffe, Israel…21 Bowery (rear)…Gold pens


And I found this on Pinterest

.

Did you know that there is no end to Pinterest? I lost my youth searching Pinterest.

That’s it. There ain’t no more. Seven years with this brand and that’s all I know about it. Looking at these pens it would appear that they were in business for at least 15 years (according to the State of New York more like 50 ) and unlike some of their pens completely noiseless. If anyone knows more, I’d love to learn it.