Another Mystery Eyedropper - Identification Help

May 22, 2023

Guess it's my turn to post one of these threads... I just got a really interesting "Arm & Hammer" fountain pen at a market, unfortunately without a cap. I'm trying to iron down who made it so I can figure out what kind of cap would work.

The nib is ventless and has a very strange feed with a hole on the bottom. No other identifying marks beyond the imprint on the barrel and "PAT." on the very end where the cap would post, but no patent number or date.

I thought at first this may have been a Parker-made pen from like 1900 (as I am aware, some of their cheap models had vent-less nibs and the knurled bits looks like some early Lucky Curve models I've seen) but it does not have a feed I've ever seen on any Parker pen. Next though is Paul Wirt maybe? They're the first thing I think of when I think of vintage nibs with no vent hole, but again, feed is a little weird.

So yeah, if anyone has any thoughts or if they've seen a pen like this before, would appreciate it. Or if you know what kind of cap would go on this. Have a feeling I am not going to be able to find one easily.

May 22, 2023

Just one small clue...

"Arm and Hammer" pens have appeared in the forum at least once before.

See the photo posted by @shalitha33 in this topic ..

May 22, 2023

Interesting, I saw a few glass dip pens branded Arm & Hammer but not the pen in that thread. In any case, that one looks very strange. The one I have looks like a pretty standard turn of the century eyedropper. If I had to guess, they contracted out these promotional pens/products to different companies.

May 22, 2023

I thought there must have been other Arm & Hammer products in the past, not just baking soda, but from looking up their history, baking soda seems to have been it. So they might have had these pens made for employee use (clerks and secretaries maybe?) rather than for sale.

As for the cap, it looks like it would have been a fairly plain cylinder, based on the shape of the section, and that it could have posted on the back of the pen.

By the way, the Arm & Hammer logo was supposed to symbolize the Roman god Vulcan (Hephaestus in Greece), not (as I supposed as a child) connected in some way with the Soviet Union. It didn't help my infant understanding that there was an industrialist named Armand Hammer who was fairly cozy with the Soviets.

May 22, 2023

I'm no expert So i'm very likely very very wrong. So don't take my word for it and wait for some one who actually know what they are talking about

But my "guess" is :

Option 1:
That the section & feed is from Aiken lambert. from the period where they had the imprint saying "Mercantile" "Made under Wirt and stone patents".

I don't think it left the factory like this. Im just going by the structure i see under the part that is cut off. i.e no ink channels.

Option 2:

I have another pen with a similar cut feed, i need to double check the patent for it which was from memory was feb 22, 1898. Just to make sure.

Option 3
Can you include a pic of the inside (of the section). does it have a X like cut in the inside ? i guess frazer & gayer could* also end up like this if its cut in half. although i am not planning to check that myself sorry. i only have two of those.

May 23, 2023

14 minutes ago, shalitha33 said:

I'm no expert So i'm very likely very very wrong.
But my "guess" is :

Option 1:
That the section & feed is from Aiken lambert. from the period where they had the imprint saying "Mercantile" "Made under Wirt and stone patents".

I don't think it left the factory like this. Im just going by the structure i see under the part that is cut off. i.e no ink channels.

Option 2:

I have another pen with a similar cut feed, i need to double check the patent for it which was from memory was feb 22, 1898. Just to make sure.

Can you include a pic of the inside (of the section). does it have a X like cut in the inside ? i guess frazer & gayer could* also end up like this if its cut in half. although i am not planning to check that myself sorry. i only have two of those.

This is awesome! The third one down in the first pic is a deadringer for my pen. The nib looks exactly the same (shapewise, and the channel, etc.) minus the Aikin Lambert imprint. Is there a chance that this was an Aikin Lambert pen made for Arm & Hammer using the Wirt patents?

I actually knocked out the feed (probably a bad idea) since the nib was loose and I couldn't properly get it back in. I will take some pics and post them a little later.

1 hour ago, Paul-in-SF said:

I thought there must have been other Arm & Hammer products in the past, not just baking soda, but from looking up their history, baking soda seems to have been it. So they might have had these pens made for employee use (clerks and secretaries maybe?) rather than for sale.

As for the cap, it looks like it would have been a fairly plain cylinder, based on the shape of the section, and that it could have posted on the back of the pen.

By the way, the Arm & Hammer logo was supposed to symbolize the Roman god Vulcan (Hephaestus in Greece), not (as I supposed as a child) connected in some way with the Soviet Union. It didn't help my infant understanding that there was an industrialist named Armand Hammer who was fairly cozy with the Soviets.

This was my thought as well. The Armand Hammer thing is funny, I actually read about it a little while back and he tried to buy the brand because people kept asking if he was related to it.

May 23, 2023

The other one . this one is an end joint pen which is from a much later time. similar feed design.

May 23, 2023

21 hours ago, shalitha33 said:

The other one . this one is an end joint pen which is from a much later time. similar feed design.

Definitely very similar, although the earlier ones are even closer. I took some pics of the feed last night:

I did not take a picture of the feed head-on from the back, but that cutout in the back does not have a deeper hole that extends to the front. It is kind of "C" shaped. Not sure of the purpose. I put the nib and feed back in and set them so I will probably not be taking it out to take more pictures.

Also, approximately what decade were these pens made? Specifically the Aikin Lambert ones from your first picture. I am fairly confident at this point that they made this pen. I am not able to find much information about these online.

May 23, 2023

This is an Aiken Lambert as far as i can tell (experts , please correct me if I am wrong).

Cap for this would be a simple cylinder with a dome top with the vent holes at closer to the bottom. Made out of BHR. Slip cap, postable.

This would be from the late 1800s while they were an agent for Wirt (I have no proof btw). It should be possible to date it to a much closer date but I don't know enough to do so sorry.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120229121047/http://www.kamakurapens.com/Manhattan/AikinLambert.html

May 24, 2023

4 hours ago, shalitha33 said:

This is an Aiken Lambert as far as i can tell (experts , please correct me if I am wrong).

Cap for this would be a simple cylinder with a dome top with the vent holes at closer to the bottom. Made out of BHR. Slip cap, postable.

This would be from the late 1800s while they were an agent for Wirt (I have no proof btw). It should be possible to date it to a much closer date but I don't know enough to do so sorry.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120229121047/http://www.kamakurapens.com/Manhattan/AikinLambert.html

Yup, that looks a whole lot like my pen. Mystery solved I guess! Aikin Lambert made promotional pens, who knew. Now to find a cap... can't say I've seen spare caps around for pens this old, I guess I will have to keep an eye out. Thanks for the help.