The Stabil Junior Button Filler

This very beautiful pen is the Stabil Junior.  For comparison, it’s the same size as an English Parker Duofold Aerometric, so the “Junior” title doesn’t imply small size, except in comparison with the senior-sized Stabil, which is a distinctly over-sized pen.

The plastic appears to share an origin – or at least a concept – with the Parker Vacumatic.  It’s fairly generally Parkerish, even to the button which is reminiscent of the Duofold AF.  The major difference is the nib which is supremely flexible.  The feed, too, is unlike anything else I’ve seen and is capable of keeping up with demands of the flex nib.  It’s a very high quality pen with a solid feel in the hand.  The threads are deeply and well cut and the gold plating remains very good.

If you try to research Stabil, you’ll find that it isn’t an especially well-known company.  Some say it’s German, others that it’s Hungarian but I prefer the explanation that it’s a Belgian company, established by Chaim Jukubowicz in 1938 and remaining in business until 1974.  The company appears to have made much of its income as an importer of Sheaffer pens while manufacturing quite small quantities of its own pens.  The nib fitted to this pen, with its bison imprint, is a German Nichroma – a sub-brand of Penol.  I don’t know if it’s original but it seems quite likely that it is.

This interesting pen may have been the product of a small company, but in terms of quality it’s the equal of anything else that was on the market at the time.