Monthly Archives: January 2014

Join the Wearever Pen Bandwagon

Here is the Wearever Deluxe 100 in a grey and red pattern that looks surprisingly close to that of the Parker Parkerette below.

Here is the Wearever Deluxe 100 in a grey and red pattern that looks surprisingly close to that of the Parker Parkerette below.

To the astonishment of many long-time pen collectors, the Wearever brand has been gaining a lot of second looks in recent years.

Although Sheaffer and Parker routinely vied for the title of the biggest and best fountain pen manufacturer from the 1920s through the 1960s, another brand beat them out on sales volume: Wearever.

0639 ParkeretteHonestly. Although a second–and even third–tier pen company, Wearever sold huge quantities of pens, particularly in the 1940s and ’50s. How did they do it? Looks and price. Some of their highest quality pens, such as the Wearever Deluxe 100, only cost one greenback dollar. Their plastics proved very durable, and the company focused a lot of attention on making the pens very attractive…often stealing, I mean, being inspired by the designs of leading pen makers. Just look at the similarity between this Wearever Deluxe 100 and Parker Parkerette.

The cost cutting came on the quality control side of things. While some of their “special alloy” nibs wrote very smoothly, many were scratchy and troublesome.

Many collectors, tired of being priced out of the ultra popular brands, are turning to these handsome vintage pens to beautify their collection while these pens are still affordable.

Overlooked for so long, there appears to be very little information about this company from North Bergen, New Jersey. Reasonable rumors state its history extends back into the late 1800s. We are very curious about this company and would love it if other fans of the brand were able to contact us with more details.

Space Pen to the Rescue

My dented rear wheel well provides the backdrop for my heroic Fisher Space Pen that I can vouch for working after sitting overnight in -13-degree weather.

My dented rear wheel well provides the backdrop for my heroic Fisher Space Pen that I can vouch for working after sitting overnight in -13-degree weather.

I was peacefully minding my own business in the left turn lane on the morning Chicago had a high temperature of -13 degrees Fahrenheit. As I watched the cross street’s light turn from green to yellow a crunching sound was seemingly deafening as my car lerched forward after some unlucky driver came careening into my rear quarter panel.

It was not the morning wake up I had wanted, but luckily the other driver and I were both safe and unhurt in the collision. Although it sounded terrible, the damage done to my passenger side was more cosmetic than structural. As luck would have it, a policeman had just pulled up to the other left turn lane to come up that same street.

If you are going to get rear-ended on the coldest day of the decade, that’s the way to do it.

Unfazed, I turned to the glove box for some scratch paper and my beat-up old Fisher Space Pen to get the guy’s insurance info.

I’m here to tell you, the advertising is all true. Fisher Space Pens can write in the coldest extremes!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Fisher Space Pen, it was invented for the exact reason it was named. Paul Fisher invented the Space Pen for NASA! NASA was looking for a writing instrument in space that didn’t need gravity to supply ink, was capable of writing in any environment on any surface. Paul Fisher realized it all came down to the ink refill. So he pressurized a ballpoint pen cartridge with a special formula ink that can write upside down, under water and on glass in any temperature range astronauts could conceivably experience from extreme cold to extreme heat.

The pens were a huge success on the Apollo missions and beyond. Fisher would introduce them to the public, where they have been an even bigger success. Police, firefighters, emergency workers and construction workers seem to universally love these pens that just don’t quit.

While I never disbelieved the advertising, I had never before put my old pen to the test in subzero temperatures. I am pleased to say it lived up to its promise. I just wish I had some for sale so that all of you could have the ultimate in emergency back-up pens or daily writers.

Oh, yes. Inevitably, someone will mention that the government wasted thousands of dollars helping to develop the Space Pen and that rival Soviet cosmonauts had a far cheaper solution to writing in space…a pencil. However, pencil shavings and graphite dust get dangerous in space. Without gravity, the graphite and wood dust build up quickly and become damaging to the lungs and sinuses. It also gets in the eyes, as well as the electronics and machinery. In the long run, the Space Pen is and was the way to go.

Eversharp Sells America on the Doric

We recently added a classic Eversharp Doric Junior to our vintage pens collection, and it is striking how handsome it remains, despite a great deal of wear. The layers of transluscent greens still flash through history as if impervious to age.

Here is the page from the 1932 Everharp catalog that shows the very Doric Junior model we carry. Notice how this rep's catalog is color but most of the pen ads are black and white. With such beautiful pens, why weren't all their ads color?

Here is the page from the 1932 Everharp catalog that shows the very Doric Junior model we carry. Notice how this rep’s catalog is color but most of the pen ads are black and white. With such beautiful pens, why weren’t all their ads color?

This made it surprising for me to have difficulty finding color advertising for these remarkable pens. True, the Depression was savaging America during the time these pens were produced. Also true, color ads were and are not cheap compared to black and white ads.

Nevertheless, the one thing that really stands out on the Doric compared to any other pen Sheaffer, Parker and Waterman had in production was the vibrant color and patterns in these pens. You would think they would want to make that the most prominent feature in the ad.

This page from the 1932 Eversharp catalog shows the very pen we now carry. It lists the color as Kashmir Pearl. The catalog itself is in color, which would have helped sell it to pen shops around the country. Yet, the print ad below it, which was published in “Time” magazine in 1935 is like all of the Doric ads my search turned up…black and white.

Here's an Eversharp Doric ad featured in Time Magazine back in 1935. Despite the cool adjustable nib, wouldn't you agree the color version would have helped sell many more pens?

Here’s an Eversharp Doric ad featured in Time Magazine back in 1935. Despite the cool adjustable nib, wouldn’t you agree the color version would have helped sell many more pens?

Not once mentioning the colors of the pen, it tauts a never-leak safety seal of some kind. That would have been an especially important feature on the pen at the time, but the only leak preventer I see in the pen is the inner cap, which most major brands had dating at least back into the 1920s.

Also peculiar is that the ad states the pen holds more ink. The Parker Vacumatic more successfully lays claim to that than any other pen that decade. ANNND, it never mentions the adjustable nib prominently featured in the illustration. That adjuster was supposed to help the pen write thinner and thicker lines, a feature you’d think Eversharp would be shouting to anyone in hear shot.

Then again, just listen to the radio or watch TV, and we still have ample ads that don’t discuss the product’s best features. Heck, sometimes, you can’t even tell what they’re trying to sell.