There are so many Swans that have no model number. Most are no mystery and you can easily work out what they are; others are more difficult to fit into the Swan range.
When I saw this pen in ebay in somewhat scruffy unrestored condition, I took it to be a Swan Minor No 2. Both are long, quite slender pens with a handsome fixed clip, but there the resemblance ends. The Swan Minors I have seen are engine chased, this one is smooth. Minors have a black hard rubber lever, this pen has the long gold plated lever that you see on the SF2. The Minor is 13.5cm capped, this pen is 14cm.
So what is it? It isn’t an SF2 barrel mated with a later cap because the shape of the barrel is wrong. In any case, there’s no indication this pen is made from bits. Both cap an barrel are without any fading and the level of wear is very slight and the same on both parts. I would say that it’s entirely original. I don’t have a clue what it is. Taking all its parts, it seems to fall between the SF2s and the Swan Minor 2s, taking part of the style of each. Any ideas?
It’s a gorgeous pen, long but not unbalanced, and the nib is a medium with appreciable flexibility.
Month: June 2013
The Mabie Todd Pens List
Just a few quick lines today as my assistant and are up to our respective ears (hers are relatively higher than mine) in work.
The Mabie Todd numbers site proceeds apace. Many thanks to Martin Holloway who has acquired the domain and has begun work on the site. He has been reading your comments with interest. I think the way that it will work is that Martin will have the final say on what it is practical to do, under John Brindle’s ownership of the material which he is very generously making available.
Martin has suggested a downloadable .pdf file of the material, which seems like the way to go. Illustrations of the pens seems the next logical step and Martin is looking into how that could be best implemented.
It will take some time and quite a lot of work but I’m looking forward with great anticipation to seeing this coming to fruition.
New Mabie Todd Research
A gentleman by name of John Brindle phoned the other night to speak to me. I was unavailable at the time and my husband, another pen enthusiast, took the call. John spent last winter researching Mabie Todd fountain pens, and he has drawn up a list correlating model number, colour, cap bands and filling system. He has recorded – literally – hundreds of pens.
I have the list before me now and it’s an astonishing piece of work, clearly very valuable to Swan and Blackbird enthusiasts. John seems amenable to the idea of having it published but I want to ascertain that more formally. Then I would either need a copy of the original digitised document or I would have to key it in. It shouldn’t be difficult to find somewhere to host it for a time to make it widely available.
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