Mark Twain's Pens
Mark Twain reportedly said “I prefer the Conklin because it has it’s filling system in it’s belly, and thanks to its shape, cannot fall off the desk”.
Roy Conklin, the founder of the Conklin Pen Company of Toledo, has variously been described as a Jeweller, Inventor, and Engineer. He was probably all of those and more. His Crescent filling system, first seen in the market place in 1903, was innovative, extremely functional and reliable; it was used with little or no change for the next 25 years.
In later years, the Conklin Pen Company went on to produce the Endura, Symetrik (both lever fillers) and Nozak (piston filler) lines. Some models of the Nozak incorporate a word gauge on their transparent barrels. This indicates the number of words (in thousands) that can be written with the remaining ink. Their advertising of the time proclaimed, “A car without a gas gauge is like a pen without a word gauge”.
More Conklin Pens
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| Dear ******,
As usual, we are running late with a site update and newsletter. A short holiday up North seeking some sun didn’t help; too relaxing!
This update sees the introduction of a new page featuring Conklin pens. We recently purchased a collection of Conklins and will add them as we restore them.
Other additions include #56 & #58 Watermans, 14ct gold Sheaffer Nostalgia, Sheaffer Flat Tops & Balances, and the Limited Edition Onoto Centenary Magna in Sterling Silver (Number 3 of 500!!!).
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| Pen Shows |
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At this time we’re busy packing for the Washington DC Pen Show and will close on 9 August (1pm AEST), re-opening on 18 August. Of course we’re offering FREE delivery to the DC show!
Our next and last show for this year will be the San Francisco show. Not as big as LA, Chicago or DC, but a very friendly show and a great venue. We missed last year’s show and regret it.
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| Quotations |
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All music is folk music, I ain’t never heard no horse sing a song.
Louis Armstrong 1901-1971
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| #3 of 500!!!! |
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Limited Edition Onoto Centenary Magna in Sterling Silver.
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| Blast from the Past |
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"From a 1952 Trade News Article.
“The 80 percent reduction on imports of fountain pens, coming on top of the classification with luxuries and non essential lines at 33 1/3 per cent sales tax, must surely convince the trade that it is time to impress on politicians that fountain pens are NOT luxuries, but are necessary to commerce, and essential to all kind of scholars and students”.
So that’s what happened to fountain pens!
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| Auctions on eBay |
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Auction sales on eBay represent a significant part of our Internet pen sales. Because of the nature of these sales, we’ve found it necessary to discontinue auctions a least ten days before we travel. On return, it generally takes a couple of days before we can resume.
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