The Esterbrook Project - some GOOD news

February 10

A bit over 10 years ago, an artist and graphic designer, Phil Pursley, began The Esterbrook Project. His original intention was to catalog the many Esterbrook dip pens he had accumulated, and loved, over the years. After he decided to put it online, it quickly became the most comprehensive list in the world of all of the dip pens manufactured by the Esterbrook Steel Pen Company.

https://theesterbrookproject.com/

Phil passed away in 2022. A couple of years before that, as he became too ill to maintain the site, I worked with him to take over its care and feeding to ensure it lasted for as long as possible. After his passing I began to create a new version of his original site and after (a lot of) starts and stops it became apparent recently that the old site was having difficulty and wasn't always available.

This prompted me to accelerate my timeline a bit and while I have just over 1/3 of the individual nib pages complete (including all of the images and the auxiliary information from my research and databases), I went ahead and at least filled out the rest of the nib pages with what images and base information I could add quickly. One of the primary uses of the site is for people who read about an Esterbrook XXX nib included in an online auction, and wonder what the heck that nib is like? By including at least the various photos and images of the pens, this will allow folks to at least see what the various numbers mean, and what they look like. I will continue to add to the pages as time permits.

You can see what the finished pages will look like by selecting any of the 00-99, 100-199 or 200-299 nib pages.

I've also added some additional information, including a history of the Esterbrook family and company from their founding up until they ceased production of dip pens in 1952. This history comes from a two-part article I published in The Pennant, the magazine for the Pen Collectors of America.

Hopefully this new site will serve the community well, and as I add to it, and reduce the number of pages that are marked as "DRAFT," we will have a resource that will continue to spread the word about wonderful steel pens of Esterbrook.

There is a Contact Me page and I hope that you will reach out and let me know how if there are ways to improve the site. (besides finishing it)

Thank you all for your patience as this project has come together, and I hope it can continue to serve the community for many more years.

Andrew

Thesteelpen.com

Theesterbrookproject.com

PS, if you've visited the site in the past, the cache in your browser may display the old site for you. Refreshing the screen, or pressing F5 often helps. Also, none of the links for the old site, except for the home page, will still work. Phil's site structure was an artifact of the time and didn't make sense for today.

February 11

Thanks for doing this Andrew. I have two Esterbrook nibs. A 517 and a 556. A former pen pal and fpn member gave them to me a number of years ago along with a third non Esterbrook nib.

February 11

Also a full-hearted THANK YOU for your efforts and investment.

Although a very limited dip pen user I have quite a few tucked away... wondering what I will do with them?

February 11

Amazing work. You and Phil are to be commended for your dedication and labor. Thank you from a user of Esterbrook nibs.

February 11

Whoohoo! It works 🙌🏼 Thanks for not only keeping up the site, but also improving it.

February 11

I'm still getting a little inconsistency and some of the pages work sometimes and get 404's other times. This should settle down in the next 48 hours.

February 11

😀😃😀😃😃

February 13

The site seems to be stable now. If you still encounter an issue, let me know where you are. Thanks.

To get an idea of what one of the more complete pages looks like, check out this one for the #239 Chancellor. This pen is one of the most common of their stubs and was made for a long time. It's also a lot of fun to write with, and great for general correspondence.

https://theesterbrookproject.com/esterbrook-nib-lists/esterbrook-nib-lists-200-299/esterbrook-239-2/