Vintage Pens

Almost Perfect...but not quite. We adore this lapis blue Parker Duofold Senior set. Its blue is breath-taking, especially in the light. However, the barrel is likely about 2 shades darker than the blue of the cap. Click the headline for a close up. The white is still very white in the barrel and cap. The blue is just a couple shades darker. You can clearly see the imprint. We restored this pen with a new ink sac. No cracks or deep scratches in the barrel. There is a scratch you can see on the section near the nib. No brassing on the pen. The 14k gold nib is paired with an original "Christmas tree" ink feed. You will write a very firm, dry fine line with a little feedback. However, it feels to us if this nib just needs some breaking in from use. The more you write with it, the wetter and smoother it will likely get. The matching pencil is lighter in the barrel but it seems to have seen much more use with brassing and some dimples in the metal trim.

Here it is! One of the Granddaddies of Grail Pens: the Waterman Patrician. We've restored this vintage pen with a new ink sac. What makes this pen really stand out to us is its black hard rubber (ebonite) cap and barrel. It has a little oxidation and moderate wear, but it isn't a mess of chocolate hazing, either. No cracks. Click the headline for close-ups. You'll write a nice, firm medium line with a little feedback with its original 14k gold Patrician nib. There's a little brassing on the cap band, and there's a slight bulge under the left-side of the clip (as you face it) where it attaches to the pen. The big golden Waterman's seal on the flat tail of the pen looks like a baseball with "Waterman's" written inside it. This is the big 'un. 13.9cm capped.

Parker advanced the efficiency and ease of using fountain pens when it created the Lucky Curve inkfeed. This is an early Parker Lucky Curve button filler from the very early 20th century. Click the headline for close-ups of the pen and nib. Notice the pen still has a slip cap and significant chocolate hazing of the black hard rubber (ebonite). We have not attempted to restore this pen. Notice how the threads of the blind cap by the button are missing. We feel that this rare older pen is likely too fragile to properly disassemble and put back together. Its 14k gold nib is a beautiful number 2 size that writes a very smooth medium line with a little flex. It also appears to have an early inkfeed. The pocket clip is an aftermarket clip made by the Rexall pharmacies. Slender and 14.1cm capped.

You can't get much closer to perfection on the hard rubber cap and barrel on a rare Sheaffer 41 Autograph model pen than this. Its chasing and imprint are as crisp as the day it was made. Zero chocolate hazing. Its 41 imprint in the flat tail has orange paint or chalk in it, which apparently isn't original. Not a trace of brassing on its extra-wide gold-plated cap band, clip and lever. The ONLY flaw is the teeniest, tiniest little dimple a 25% turn to the left of the clip in the center of the cap band. That's it, and you'll miss it if you don't specifically look for it. Our vintage pen is fully restored with a new ink sac. It has a replacement 14k gold Lifetime nib without the serial number AND an original spear-point inkfeed. You will write a fine line with a little feedback, but we don't think most people will be making such a beautiful specimen a frequent writer. It is an impressive vintage pen, especially in this condition. Click the headline for close-ups. 13.5cm capped.

Classy, elegant, sophisticated. Dip pen fans will love this sterling silver repousse antique pen. We suspect it comes from around the turn of the 20th century. It could be older. The holder is marked "Sterling," but there is no formal branding. Ergo, we don't know who made it. There are a couple little marks on the pen, and one of the silver edges where the nib goes in has split just a teeny-tiny amount. We included a "new" Esterbrook Bronze Falcon 048 nib, which is NOS. You will write a firm, smooth line from extra-fine to about 1mm. This is semi-flex and far from a wet noodle. Click the headline for close-ups. Yes, our cat is holding the pen down for a nib close-up, and, no, he is not for sale with the pen. 18.5cm.

Grail pens such as this Waterman 0322 "Chased" pen from the early 1900s are intoxicatingly rare. What has become known as "repousse" in many pens Waterman called "chased" in its early turn-of-the-century catalogs. This taper cap with gold-filled overlay is a once-in-a-lifetime pen for us. Its 14k gold nib writes an extra-fine to 1mm flexi line, but the slender hard-rubber pen is so delicate, we don't really recommend writing with it much. Filling this eyedropper pen will be difficult as the section seems firmly screwed together and not wanting to separate. Engraved on the barrel cartouche are the initials E.H.L. You can see a couple bite marks on the end of the barrel and tip of the taper. Its biggest flaw is an upside-down "L" crack from the lip of the cap. Clear imprint on the taper cap. Overall, a very good vintage pen for its age. Click the headline for close-ups. 14.7cm capped.

Sheaffer Demonstrator pens from the 1920s and '30s turn up so rarely, this might be your one chance in a lifetime to get this pen. You can see the cut outs made into the barrel of this rare vintage pen. Sheaffer Dealers and pen reps would have these pens to showcase how a Sheaffer pen works on the inside. You can see this pen has been fully restored with a new ink sac. It is great to see this pen working through the filling and recapping cycles. The trim shows a little brassing, and there is some light wear on this pen. You will write a medium line with its 14k gold Lifetime nib. It has an early 1930s inkfeed.

Do you wish your vintage grail pen came with a Japanese extra-fine nib? This 1939 Parker Vacumatic Maxima gets pretty close to Japanese extra-fine with the right paper. It is a beautiful silver pearl design with tolerable barrel clarity with ambering. No cracks, no scratches, no significant wear. It comes with a fresh diaphragm and a clean imprint and top and bottom silver pearl design jewels. There's monotone 14k gold nib. Click the headline for close-ups. Great aluminum speedline filler. Its only flaw seems to be the darkened metal trim around the blind-cap jewel. 13.6cm capped.