Any info on Unic Pen?

[theodore94]

Can anyone tell me anything about this pen? Just got it in a wonderful lot! As you can see, it appears to be a Unic, but I don't anything about Unics at all (except that they're French). It appears to say "UNIC OR 13CT IRIDIUM (3)" on the nib. I'd love to figure out what model or year it is or perhaps what it's worth (I don't sell pens but it's always nice to know the collective value of a lot you bought is worth more than you paid!)

 

Thanks so much!

 

[note: by mistake, this was originally posted in the Italian - Europe forum]

[OMASsimo]

Unic was a minor producer of the better known French pen manufacturers of the golden age. So, there is not much information to be found about them. Your pen looks like it could be from the 1950s and thus past the time that formed the good reputation of the company. By the way, the nib imprint may read “18 cts” rather than “13 ct” because in France nibs with less than 18 ct were not allowed to be called “gold” (“or”).

[theodore94]

When you say "past the time that formed the good reputation of the company", do you mean that this is one of the "lesser" models?

 

I suppose it's kind of neat that it's not a very common (and now defunct) brand. Any clue what something like this would be worth (ranges/guesses are okay.... I'm not selling it anyways)?

 

Yes, you're right! I believe it says "18 cts" -- it's pretty hard to read. 

[OMASsimo]

I don’t know the particular model you have and I wouldn’t want to speculate on it. What I meant is that the company was past their prime in the 50s like so many other fountain pen manufacturers. Unic was smaller than e.g. Bayard but had a great reputation in the 30s and 40s for high quality pens just like Bayard. The economic success crumbled in the 50s with consequences for their products. That was a worldwide phenomenon and caused many formerly successful companies to vanish. A few others started to dominate the market. In France, probably that was Jif Waterman.