As you may have gathered by now, I’m particularly fond of Duofolds of almost any date, with the exception of the current ones which don’t do much for me. I think of Duofolds as the first truly modern pens.

This Junior is one of the quite early ones, dating to 1928 or so. The pattern is known as Black and Pearl. It is especially prone to discolouring but if it isn’t too bad the colour change is attractive too. This one hasn’t suffered too much. I’ve seen others where the pattern has almost disappeared.

When it came to me the nib had had its day. The tipping had probably worn off and someone had tried to stub it, without notable success! I had an English Junior nib and despite the fact that the two nibs had thirty or forty years and the Atlantic Ocean between them, it was a perfect fit. For many years Duofolds remained Duofolds; despite style changes they were still essentially the same pen.

The pen has lost some gold plating on the clip and cap rings. That’s a sign that the pen has been well used and loved for at least a large part of the last ninety years. As I get older I become more attached to the really good pens that I find. I can’t keep them all, though, and indeed I don’t really have any need for more pens so someone else will get this beauty when I upload it to the sales site.