Here’s a 1934 advert. I have, literally, hundreds of these adverts and I should post examples more often. As well as the rather tasty fountain pens, there are examples of the nibs available at the time. Earlier, many more nib types were on offer. If I ever come across that earlier list of nibs in the chaos that I call my archive, which can only happen when I’m looking for something else, I’ll be sure to post it.
As well as the delightful pens and the nibs, take note of the mouthwatering prices. I know that what appear to be trivial prices today were a lot of money back then, but allow me to dream…
Nibs are also referred to as “points”, a term that has virtually vanished from current usage except for a few anachronistic authors who sit down to write wearing tailcoats, high collars and top hats.
very interesting Deb. On and off over the years I buy volumes of the Studio and Studio Year Book from the ’20’s and ’30’s – I’m sure that such adverts appear in these volumes.
The range of points doesn’t appear to include a ‘flexible nib’ – was that something that came after this period do you think, or simply not offered by Swan?
I don’t think that the full range of nibs available is shown here. There is no sign of the various stub nibs, for instance, and they certainly appear on pens of that date. As regards flexible nibs, a quite large proportion of Swan nibs at this date are flexible. How they were chosen by the buyer isn’t obvious today but it is possible that the retailer offered a choice. Though flexible Swan nibs appear right up to the last pens they made, flexible nibs were most common in the early years of the fountain pen. For instance, a very large proportion of eyedropper Swans have nibs varying between semiflexible and very flexible.
Your old magazines are a treasure trove of information about all sorts of things, probably including Swan pens. Because of the lack of the company archive, adverts are the best source of information about Swan pens today.