In the nineteen twenties and thirties Waterman was a market leader with their wonderful ripple hard rubber pens and beautifully patterned celluloid pens. By the forties the company’s tide had begun to ebb and their pens were less attractive with unexciting design and poor gold plating. Their top of the range pens were still good, though. First was the Hundred Year Pen, followed by the Emblem.

This is a pen of an entirely different order from the 512s and the 513s of the same period. Most obviously, the gold plating is much thicker and despite this pen bearing the marks of having been much used there is no brassing. It’s heavier, too, probably partly from the greater amount of gold but also because the Lucite barrel is thick. At 13.7 cm, with a considerable girth, it’s a large pen for the time. When the clutch cap is removed the large Emblem nib is exposed. Though I believe some Emblem nibs are firm, this one is decidedly flexible. It’s a great pen by any standards.

The Emblem is not a common pen in the UK though I believe it sold better in the USA. Its successor, the Medalist, didn’t seem to catch on here at all. The result is that this is almost a forgotten pen here. They don’t run to the prices that they do in the USA, which gives the British collector the chance to obtain a very prestigious pen at a comparatively low cost.