52 Model/year?

[GradenF]

Just picked this up at an antique store today. I can’t find any other 52 with this clip style. I’d like to know the year it was made and anything else I can know about this pen. Thanks!

 

 

[pen lady]

The 52 was made for a number of years in the late teens and into the 1920's but that clip will be of no use in dating the pen, sorry.  The original clip broke at some time (the two small holes in your first photo are evidence of this) and a slip-on accommodation clip was installed.

 

These pens are pretty easy to get working again as long as the pressure bar is still in good shape. The hard black rubber on yours is faded, but for a pen that cold be about 100 years old, it's not looking too bad. Enjoy!

 

 

[GradenF]

3 hours ago, pen lady said:

The 52 was made for a number of years in the late teens and into the 1920's but that clip will be of no use in dating the pen, sorry.  The original clip broke at some time (the two small holes in your first photo are evidence of this) and a slip-on accommodation clip was installed.

 

These pens are pretty easy to get working again as long as the pressure bar is still in good shape. The hard black rubber on yours is faded, but for a pen that cold be about 100 years old, it's not looking too bad. Enjoy!

 

 

There is a crack in the cap (not shown) that I’m hoping won’t affect whether the nib dries out or not. But the nib is in great shape! I honestly like the clip a lot. Trying to polish it/clean it up looks like it will be a pain though

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

I think you'd have to provide a picture of the imprint on the pen for a slightly better time estimate but based on the nib it's probably mid to late 1920's. The earlier nibs had the "New York" imprint on them. I think they switched around 1925. 

 

If you had the original clip that would help a little as well as the early ones said "Clip Cap" and the later one's had "Waterman's" on them instead. I think this change happened around the same time as the nib imprint change but I could be wrong.

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 6/3/2024 at 8:30 PM, LoveBigPensAndCannotLie said:

"Clip Cap"

Thank you for this info. I have two beater 52's, both Wet noodles, one a two stage 7X, the other a 6X. Both are Clip Cap.

Both nibs say

WATERMAN'S

IDEAL

REG US

PAT OFF

One has a little mark under that...The other nib is set lower in and one can not really see all of PAT OFF

 

These two are beaters, I got doing some horse trading with Mauricio. I was after Wet Noodles first... I didn't have the money to go first class, but I chase the nib. And I got two Wet Noodles

...............................

 

I also now have a 1918-mid 30's??? Waterman rolled gold 0554 Gothic with the same nib, also a wet noodle.

I set it off to Francis to be re-sacked...as only a semi-flex .....it came back a Wet Noodle.

Mauricio says there's a lot of fiddling to get the feed and nib set perfectly in superflex, so I never fiddled or had a reason to fiddle with my 52s. Francis fiddled just great.

The nib was dirty only, and the 800 silver dip pen polished up well.