I wasn't looking for another desk pen, but saw this in October 2015 an antique store. The pen is still in its box, has the original instructions, and (best of all), it doesn't appear to have ever been inked up! Usually the "in the wild" finds I've experienced are not as interesting and complete as this.
Frankly, I wasn't even planning on keeping it. After spending a day with it, however, I'm starting to change my mind. I consider myself a user, not just a collector, but I almost hate to ink it up (and yes, the Snorkel filler does seem to work!) and remove the stickers from the pen!
Follow along and get ready for a lot of pictures...
From from Armstrong Jewelers in Waco, Texas. Fun to imagine that this was a gift given to someone who kept it in the box and threw it in a drawer for 60 years or so.
On to the pen...
Like I said, it doesn't appear to have ever been inked, though I would guess that it had been dipped before. There was just a hint of ink around the feeder on the nib, but after taking it apart (the barrel easily unscrewed from the barrel allowing access to the inner workings of the Snorkel system), everything looked pristine. "Dry filling" the pen (with air), resulted in a robust filling sound--more so than my restored PFM and other Snorkels (!). I decided to see what would happen if I filled it with water, and it worked beautifully pulling up a surprising large amount of water.
In this picture, I wasn't shooting for the nib (14K "5") as much as the sticker indicating that it's a fine nib.
The next picture shows a price of $7.50. I'm not sure if that would be for the pen or the set.
Biggest "problem" is a small chip in the plastic edge of the trumpet. Not sure if this happened in the pen's original home, in the antique store, or....
...the store owner told me that this pen had been stolen (with several other items) from their store. Fortunately, the thief was caught on camera, and--even better--this individual had previously given the owner his contact information because he had brought in a clock to be repaired by them! Thankfully, he wasn't a mastermind criminal. The police paid him a visit and found this pen, along with a bunch of stolen items from several stores, and everything was recovered.
Here's a picture of the bottom of the base.
So, though I considered keeping it in its pristine condition and selling it because:
1. I already have more desk pens than I have desks.
2. It's not even a "white dot" pen.
3. It's not even a two-toned nib.
4. It's so close to being a new pen (I hate to casually just pull the stickers off and fill it up).
4. The pen can screw into the trumpet of the base. That's great, but as I indicated above, the pen easily unscrews allowing access to the "inner workings". Unfortunately, when I put it in, the pen got stuck (screwed into the trumpet), and the barrel easily unscrewed. It scared me that after all these years the pen was stuck in its base after a half hour at my house! I eventually was able to get it out without any damage, whew!
However, and I dipped it and tried writing with it--wow! One of the nicer pens I've used. Smooth and perfect ink flow (especially for a fine tipped pen). So this one's staying in the stable.
Oh, and I'm sure at least someone would wonder how much I paid. The sticker on the base says $65, but the owner gave it to me for $45. Probably not the deal of the century, but with the box and instructions and the great condition of the pen, and as an avid collector, it would have almost felt irresponsible to not have snatched it up!
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