Wyvern remains the red-headed stepchild among British pens. Conway Stewart has an excellent website and a very informative book. Langs pens are very well covered in a website. Mabie Todd has an increasingly well-recorded and illustrated website. Poor old Wyvern, despite being an old established and prolific company, has nothing.
Sharon Cordwell brought this pen to my attention. I hadn’t seen one like it before and I searched the Internet and my various reference books without coming upon anything related to it. Because I am an idiot I had forgotten Stephen Hull’s masterly The English Fountain Pen Industry 1875 – 1975 in my search. I searched out the section on Wyvern and there it was: the No 7 was introduced in 1930 at a time of factory expansion in Leicester. Mottled hard rubber was still commonly used at that date, not quite having been replaced by celluloid.
It’s a delightful small pen, kitted out for a chain or ribbon to be hung ready for use by the Lady of the House. Such pens had been popular for 30 years by this date though thereafter they would become less and less common. Unfortunately the pen does not bear the heraldic Wyvern, a fire-breathing critter and the logo of the company, which they borrowed from the arms of Leicester where the factory was situated. It’s interesting to note that the barrel imprint carries a legend “Wyvern Pen Co London”. The company had an office and showroom there.
My gratitude to Sharon for permission to write about her pen, and for the photographs which I use here.
What a lovely pen and in the short while I have been a pen ‘follower’ the Wyvern has appeared to be another fine British product.
London yes (despite Leicester) because in those days and in even more recent times, that carried weight as a source. You know – London | Paris | New York .. !!
Lovely to see this super example. Thank you both.
I have a 7s quite similer to the one that is shown in your photo and I am sure this pen was offered on ebay but removed yesterday as lost or broken before I could put a bid in for it.All Wyverns manufactured after 1925 have the Wyvern Pen Co.London logo on them. Are there any other Wyvern collectors that you Know of ?
Hi I recently bought Wyvern pen No 5 in India, its in excellent condition and if you like i will share pics on email. I dont know much about the pen and no more information available on internet.
its like No 7 pen, wooden finish and it has written ” Wyvern No 5, made in London, England, 1929″. it has 14K Guaranteed Gold Nib and heart like hole is made on nib.
My email is ” kshrinew@gmail.com“, Im from India. Please share information on email if u know more. Thank you.
I’m not sure what information you are looking for. Perhaps you could be more specific. I prefer to keep replies to comments in the blog rather than email, as information may be useful to others as well.