Jean-Pierre Lépine pen maker in France, model called Winston. What is it made of?

[Paul-in-SF]

I recently won one of these pens at a real live auction (well, it was handled online, but it wasn't eBay). When I received it, I noticed a tiny chip just under the metal cap threads, and I looked at it in magnification. I could see the substrate, which looked like brass (nothing unusual there). But the next layer appears to be a white ceramic substance like you'd see on the inside of a broken piece of china. Then the outside layer, I don't know if it's a layer of resin or some plastic like that, or if it was baked in a kiln, or what. The surface design is kind of similar to Arco materials, but obviously drawn on somehow, not constructed. The color scheme is black, grey, tan and white. 

 

The pen looks like this one that used to be for sale by Chatterley Luxuries. They claim it is made of celluloid, but I am reasonably certain that the pen I have is not. Here's a photo I took using macro mode on my cell phone. I think you can see what I'm talking about.

 

 

Does anyone here know more about these pens, or about how they are made?

[Paul-in-SF]

Bumping once just because I still want to know.

 

I found another sort of odd thing about this pen. There is a gold-plated trim ring at the nib end of the section. That is not unusual, but this trim ring comes out as part of the nib unit when you unscrew it. That means that there is an opening between this trim ring and the section, through which it is possible for ink to leak -- and it did. When it leaked I cleaned out the pen and explored far enough to find this little anomaly, which seems like not very good design work. When I was putting the nib unit and section back together, I put a little silicone grease on those threads, very carefully so as not to get anything on the feed, which I hope will prevent more ink leaking, at least for a while. I also made sure the nib unit was as securely screwed in as I could.

[kazoolaw]

The Papier-Plume website describes it as cellulose acetate.

 

[Paul-in-SF]

Thank you. Yes, I saw that listing. So did Chatterley Luxuries in a listing they had. My main reasons for questioning those esteemed institutions are: the weight, it is a hefty pen at 47 grams (partly filled); the feel, the outside feels to me glassy not plasticky; the thickness of the material, would that be normal for cellulose acetate?; but mostly, the look of the material in the place where it was chipped, it appeared that the coloring was only on the surface and the inside was white, like a ceramic cup. 

 

To be fair, part of the weight would be from the brass fittings (barrel threads, male and female); I was not able to measure the thickness of the material in the barrel, where it is visibly the thickest; and the chip was tiny, I was looking at it through magnification, and because the chip had led to a small crack, I have filled the area with Capt. Tolley's so you can't really see that any more. Unfortunately I neglected to take a photo before hand. 

 

None of this is all that important, it's just a niggling thing in the back of my mind. I appreciate any information, this is such an obscure little maker that not much seems available from them. Maybe I'll write them a letter.