New Parker 51

[Beechwood]

2 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

 You have a pen set from George V?!  WOW!  Consider me duly impressed.

I don't even have a real family heirloom pen.  The closest was my grandfather's pen/pencil combo that I lost when I was about 8, after finding on top of my dad's dresser; followed by my husband's grandfather's Sheaffer Balance Oversize that when my mother-in-law gave it to me a few years ago.  It had the cap for HER Eversharp Skyline jammed on to it so tightly I was afraid of breaking both trying to get the cap off, and had to have someone at a pen show take section pliers to the cap.  I was able to get a replacement cap and that's the pen I want to someday give to someone in the next generation or so, to keep "in the family" (like one of my husband's niece's kids when they get older).  Once that pen got restored including the replacement cap, it turns out to be a nice writer -- and not heavy for its size.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Hi Ruth

 

King George V used to give fountain pen sets as Christmas presents to all the staff at Sandringham and Buck House, his preferred maker was Wyvern and they made a gold box for the king. My set was overtightened by some ham fisted oaf and there was a crack through the cap threads, a difficult repair but Eric Wilson rose to the challenge and fixed it around 2009.

 

By coincidence I found another Royal set, a year later. You might remember former FPN member Sumgaikid in Tampa, he did me a great favor when I was looking for a Vacumatic clam shell box, he sent one  over to me and in return I sent him the second Royal set, from memory,  a toffee colored Wyvern set in a cross hatch design, all in the original gold box.

 

I have to admit that I have a soft spot for pens and pen sets that have a provenance.

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

Yeah, me too.  I don't understand the people who go "Ewww" over vintage pens that have engraving on them.  Unless they're getting something that's NOS, a pen would have been used by somebody.  But if that's going to drop the "value" (and the price)?  So much the better for me.  I always want to try to find out information about the person who's name is on a pen -- who they were, what they did, if they've got any descendants, what caused them to buy that particular pen (or if it was a gift).  Mostly I've not been lucky in that regard, but did find information about one name one time.  I really wish I could track down the descendants of the Red Shadow Wave Vacumatic I got in the auction at a pen show a few years ago, and tell them "I have your [grandfather's/great uncle's/whatever] pen, and LOVE it!"  (That's the pen that I ran for something like 3 years without any sort of flushing or maintenance -- just refilled it as needed with Waterman Mysterious Blue, and one that is in almost constant rotation even now.)

Had an interesting conversation a few years ago with one of the vendors at the Commonwealth Pen Show (apparently he lives in the town when my brother-in-law used to be the Postmaster for, so knows my brother-in-law).  He had a pen that had belonged to some woman who was a WAC or WAVE (forget which now) in WWII and was able to find information about her.

I guess I'm just a sucker for stuff like oral history.  And am sad that I lost the pen/pencil combo that had been my grandfather's when I was a kid after my grandfather died.  I did have to do a oral history project when I was older, and interviewed my grandmother on that side, and her story was fascinating, with details I would not have even known about otherwise (such as that only people in steerage went through Ellis Island when they emigrated to the US -- people who had 1st class (like her rich cousins) and 2nd class berths (like she was) were processed on the boat....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[thx1138]

Thank you for the interesting and thoughtful replies.

As I have quite a number of English mediums the pen will stay new for now.