identification Help me Identify my pens please!

[Exanimus]

Hi! 
I'm a new member from Sweden and my name is Peter, nice to meet you all! 

 

I inherited 3 pens when my father passed earlier this year and i need help with identification of the pens and also want to know if they are any good or if it's just "ordinary" fountain pens.

They are all piston filled pens by the way.

 

The 1st one is fully striped and have no text/logo or markings on it whatsoever and is equipped with and Iridium point.

The 2nd is one color blue/gray-ish (Can't really determine because of impaired vision) It has the text "Valero" branded on it's body and has a nib with the text "Real 12R" on the point.

The 3rd I know just alittle about, it is black and have the text "The Tower" on two places on the pen and a 14K gold nib. As far as i understood this was the name Soenneken (?) gave these pens when selling them to Sweden and some other country. Maybe some of you can fill me in here? 

 

Name, model, approximate age and other info would be nice

 

I would appreciate all info you can give me and if someone can help with estimating the value on each pen it would be nice. (No pens are for sale, i plan to start using one or several of them.)

 

//Peter

 

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I don't have a Tower, almost bought one, but I thought the nib a nail.

 

I have a couple stripped blind cap pens from the mid '60's.

One that looks a bit similar to yours says Clipper on it and has an airplane with three tails on the nib. I have those in Rose and or Blue stripes.

They are semi-flex, but not the 'normal' German semi-flex stubs.They have that American Bump Under.

 

What do you rate your nibs as?

 

[Exanimus]

Thanks @Bo Bo Olsonfor your reply! 

 

Your pens look amazing!

well my striped pen has no marking at all so i guess it is some generic noname pen maybe. All of the pens are from around 1940-1960 i think. My father was born in 1948 and he got the pens from someone in his early years so they could be older than i think. 

 

I don't understand what you mean by how i rate my nibs, i haven't tested the pens yet since i just got them and i have no ink. and some of them needs some repairs too and i am afraid of trying that myself at this point. I need to find someone who can look at them for me before i put ink in them. I just recently cleaned them in my ultrasonic cleaner and then made a mistake by trying to clean the inside with some mild cleaner so i got some white markings on the inside of the transparent glass window on one of the pens, so i'll have to fix that too. Luckily it was on the pen that was in worst condition already. 

Edited August 31, 2021 by Exanimus
typos and stuff

[peterg]

Valero and The Tower are German pens aimed at the Scandinavian market and the third pen is almost certainly German too.

 

The Tower was also sold in America and is considered an upmarket pen.

 

I would agree with your dating, more mid '50's to 60's I would say. Cork seals would suggest 1950's.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Francis Goossens /Fountainble on the com, does my re-corking.

First properly done sized and then boiled in oil and beeswax cork is the smoothest gasket. Marshal and Oldfield's Pen Repair book says that.

then Francis adds a slather of silicon grease.

 

He is not terribly expensive.  Takes pride of what he does.

This pen is a very similar except for a bit of the chasing to my Fend Milan made Safety Pen, mid '30s 18k rolled gold .

 

I went to my auction house.....and the pen was not only missing the nib but the Feed Too!!!. Oh, well.... the young lady behind the counter didn't even ...nor even smile when I commented someone stole the nib and even the feed. Third picture down by twisting the black portion, the nib and feed come out.

 

I'd paid for getting it re-corked. Francis had to re-make me a spindle in someone had super glued it back together after breaking it and it didn't really work. So he made me another spindle with out charging me.

He does cork exactly the way I want so I've had 8 or so pens re-corked by him.

Going to have more done. I prefer the smoother cork...if the repair man really knows what he is doing to Plastic Gasket 2.0....1955-now plastic.

 

Penboard.de was so kind as to let me use their professional grade picture.

 

ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc

Now to nib checking. One uses one's thumbnail. With some force, Press the nib against your thumbnail. If the tines remain together it is a nail. If with some force it looks like the tines move just a bit....it might well be a semi-nail.

 

Soon you will know the difference betwen a semi-nail and the easier to tine spread out to 3X...a light down stroke of ink. Regular flex was often normal issue fro many pen companies over the eras.

Call it soft +...good for shading inks in it is not as wet as the semi-flex. (Japanese call regular flex...'soft'.

 

Semi-flex the tines spread easy...real soft. soft ++.........tine spread also of 3 X, but so much easier.

 

I'd not worry about exactness right now...stiff, rather stiff.

Some tine movement with some but not great movement.

Tine movement with out a lot of pressure.....will do as noobie.