Two unusual items for E-Bay

Got two somewhat unusual items for e-bay

One is a George Jensen fountain pen. Presumably made by Edward Todd or
Hutcheon or Swan or someone. (Possibly not E.T as it doesn't have their
mark on it, - unless George Jensen just didn't want anyone else's logo on
their pen?)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=2544916 975

The other I haven't put up yet as I hadn't come across it either and didn't
know how to categorise it at all???

It is marked Pendora and looks like one of those Melbi or Spohr glass nib
pens. But if you look closely, it is actually a ball point with a terrific
1940s (i.e. late) art deco clip. Most interestingly (pen collectors will
find this point the only point of interest in this pen!) it is a piston
filler!

Has anyone ever seen a ball point designed to be filled? And if so, before
the introduction of the roller ball at least 30 years later, with what? Was
oil-based ink ever sold commercially? I know that pen people who were
reluctant to throw away their new modern marvels used to mix their own oil
based ink even back in the 1940s, but was this stuff ever sold? Or was the
position that this pen just never worked properly for very long? It is
marked Pendora and FOREIGN

(which, for those who didn't know these things, was how things made to be
sold in England tended to be marked: When passport controls came in at
Calais and the French government immigration officials found huge numbers
of Englishmen coming through the channel marked for the locals, they started
asking these Englishmen why they were coming through the channel for locals:
They all replied that they saw two signs they didn't understand but that one
said that it was for foreigners and they knew that they CERTAINLY weren't
foreigners so they went through the other channel. There again, it was
quite common in the 19th Century for short weather reports to appear in
English newspapers saying "FOG OVER CHANNEL: CONTINENT CUT OFF AGAIN"))

Licensed to Quill
(I still find it difficult to believe that anyone actually pays money to
COLLECT ball points and this is clearly evidenced by the huge amount of lack
of bidding on E-Bay whenever anything other than a current-use model comes
up)

Has anyone ever seen a ball point designed to be filled? And if so, before
the introduction of the roller ball at least 30 years later, with what?

Yes...the German's developed these in the later 1930s. Note it has a ruby
bearing - not steel. This was due to the fact that extreme wear would occur and
only a diamond type bearing would resist it. Later many more were made...but
the earliest had an angled point so that a fountain pen user could readily
adapt to the new ball tip (which works best if held slightly off angle by a
couple degrees or so to the perpendicular). Frequently the feed consisted of
spiraled gold foil reminiscent of the Russian spiral feeds of 1900-1905 yet
MUCH smaller.

Frank knows a lot about these piston filled rollers as well.

The most recent versions were made by ken-pen I believe...and were cartridge or
convertor filled. They can be extraordinarily smooth writing pens. They are
not ball points - but unique nibbed fountain pens. I would never insult a ruby
tipped pen by calling it a simple "ball point"...rather it is a ruby bearing
fountain pen that uses normal ink (a few drops of glycerin helps with
these...but NEVER use thick modern dye infested ink - try to stick with skrip
or these will clog quickly).

Licensed to Quill wrote:



Has anyone ever seen a ball point designed to be filled? And if so, before
the introduction of the roller ball at least 30 years later, with what? Was
oil-based ink ever sold commercially? I know that pen people who were
reluctant to throw away their new modern marvels used to mix their own oil
based ink even back in the 1940s, but was this stuff ever sold? Or was the
position that this pen just never worked properly for very long? It is
marked Pendora and FOREIGN


They use regular fountain pen ink and I got about 20 in my collection
from simple black ones to fantastic multi colored and Vac plastic style
lamanited versions. All are piston fillers and all are working. I've
had a couple in daily use for many years. Realy cool and one could
argue if they were they first ballpoints or first roller balls. The
were introduced in Germany in the mid 1930s and were briefly brought
back after the War as well. They all seem to be German made. As
Nathan says they all seem to use a ruby or other form of jeweled ball
for a writing tip. Some include internal mesh filters to avoid cloging
the ball/seat with any debri that could be in the ink. AS found most
need really extensive cleaning to operate, but most will work nicely
once any dried ink is cleared out.

Beyond those I have seen a couple of noname crappy refillable oil based
ink ballpoints from the 1940s with complex external hypo needle style
fillers and ink in a toothpaste style tube. My guess is such pens were
soon useless and never worked at all after a couple years due to ink dry
out and ball wear. Frank

Thanks guys: Looks like I should give it a real cleaning in a sonic bath and
have a closer look inside that 'glass' 'spiral'

L2Q


wrote in message ...
Licensed to Quill wrote:



Has anyone ever seen a ball point designed to be filled? And if so,
before
the introduction of the roller ball at least 30 years later, with what?
Was
oil-based ink ever sold commercially? I know that pen people who were
reluctant to throw away their new modern marvels used to mix their own
oil
based ink even back in the 1940s, but was this stuff ever sold? Or was
the
position that this pen just never worked properly for very long? It is
marked Pendora and FOREIGN


They use regular fountain pen ink and I got about 20 in my collection
from simple black ones to fantastic multi colored and Vac plastic style
lamanited versions. All are piston fillers and all are working. I've
had a couple in daily use for many years. Realy cool and one could
argue if they were they first ballpoints or first roller balls. The
were introduced in Germany in the mid 1930s and were briefly brought
back after the War as well. They all seem to be German made. As
Nathan says they all seem to use a ruby or other form of jeweled ball
for a writing tip. Some include internal mesh filters to avoid cloging
the ball/seat with any debri that could be in the ink. AS found most
need really extensive cleaning to operate, but most will work nicely
once any dried ink is cleared out.

Beyond those I have seen a couple of noname crappy refillable oil based
ink ballpoints from the 1940s with complex external hypo needle style
fillers and ink in a toothpaste style tube. My guess is such pens were
soon useless and never worked at all after a couple years due to ink dry
out and ball wear. Frank

In article ,
"Licensed to Quill" wrote:

Got two somewhat unusual items for e-bay

One is a George Jensen fountain pen. Presumably made by Edward Todd
or Hutcheon or Swan or someone. (Possibly not E.T as it doesn't
have their mark on it, - unless George Jensen just didn't want
anyone else's logo on their pen?)

Not surprising if Jensen & Co. didn't want another maker's mark on
their pen.

Reminds me of a more modern Georg Jensen pen, this one made by Aurora,
which I won on eBay- only to have the seller never ever respond to
multiple emails. Must not have gotten the price s/he wanted, I
suppose. I wasn't out any money, but missed out on a pen that would
have thrilled my Danish-extraction wife who happens to be a huge GT
fan. :-( Good luck with this one, it's way too rich for my wallet.