Full size Pilot Elite c. 1970?

[nick2253]

I have stumbled across a number of full size "Pilot Elite" pens, and I am interested to know more about them.  Most of the examples I have seen at auction sites, and they are claimed to date from the 1970s.

 

In contrast with most Pilot Elites, these pens are not pocket pens, but rather full size.  They have an inlaid nib, in the style of the Pilot Elite 95S.

 

For example:

 

I have also seen many examples in sterling silver, often listed as "Namiki" pens.

 

Personally, I enjoy the slip cap and inlaid nibs, so I'd like to learn some better search terms to find these pens.  And it's always fun to learn the history.  Does anyone have any more info?  Perhaps a copy of Pilot's catalog from the era showing the pens?

 

Thanks!

[stan]

The Elite was first released, I believe, in the late 1960s. Sorry, no catalogue. Earliest models came with a push button squeeze filler that was flawed and difficult to repair so Pilot revised the filling system to cartridge/converter. 

 

The Namiki models in silver are more recent and have a ball clip. The original models were sold under the name Elite and Silvern. They all came with cartridge/converter filling systems. There were a good number of patterns used for the Silvern and custom models could be ordered. You might be able to find them on Yahoo Japan once in awhile.

[liubrian]

I don't have a catalog either but I think I can suggest the possible lineage of the pen in your example.  From left to right:

 

1. Barrel is marked "Pilot Super 300G", with datecode DW 20 - 20 November 1963.  The pen is a button filler with the button uncovered by a blind cap - pull and twist to prepare for filling, and then press normally.  Then pull and twist again to lock the button away.  There is also a cartridge filling version.
2. Barrel is marked "Pilot G-500", with datecode FV 20 - 20 October 1965.  Described elsewhere as a "Super 500G" but there's no "Super" branding on it anywhere.  Uses the accordion filler described by Stan above as "flawed and difficult to repair" and I agree.  It relies on a long and easily jammed breather tube, and the feed is made out of very delicate plastic that crumbles with excessive handling.  Don't put one in an ultrasonic machine.
3. Barrel is marked "GB-500" with datecode HX 21 - 21 December 1967.  Accordion filler.
4. Barrel is unmarked apart from the datecode but there's the Elite branding on the cap.  Datecode is IW 27 - 27 November 1968.  Accordion filler.  Unlike the other three, which have slip caps, there is a cap clutch and clutch ring that give a little click when closing the pen.  I think there were cartridge fillers of this exact design but I am not sure.

According to Lambrou/Sunami's Fountain Pens of Japan, the Elite 1500GT, announced in 1968, was "a balanced pen in sterling silver and machine tooled with latticework, and it featured a bellow filler, which used an accordion-shaped sac" - a photograph two pages down shows what should be this pen (the labels are unclear), which is essentially a silver lattice version of pen #4 above.  Pens like #4 and the pen in FPOJ are often referred to on the auction sites as "Custom Elite" / "カスタム エリート" and I think I recall seeing labels to that effect in NOS auction listings, though I can't find any at the moment.  A quick look at auction listings shows that these pens often, but not always, have the inscription "Custom" on the nib - mine doesn't.

 

My theory is that a "G" series of pens, marketed particularly at gentlemen, eventually begat the Custom Elite.  I've attached an ad (pulled from this listing: https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g335373345) to show how the Pilot Super 300G was marketed.  My understanding, from this and other now-expired listings, is that the G series was marketed in a pen-for-men sort of way.  There's also what appears to be a Super 300G in the second 1961 ad on this page: https://www.pilot.co.jp/100th/en/gallery/.  It can't quite be said that the G directly led to the Elite brand though, as you can see from the first 1963 poster in the Pilot gallery; the branding Pilot Elite "エリート " is used under what should be a Super 200, though without the familiar English script text.

 

As a final note, FPOJ dates the Art Craft Silvern series to 1969, and says that the ball clip was introduced past 1989.