I know the usual Esterbrooks, both Relief and otherwise but I haven’t seen this one before. It’s English made with a 14ct gold screw-in nib. The gold plating is good though the pen has clearly seen some use. I like the cowl clip. It’s not a working pen as it stands as there is no sac nipple. Can anyone tell me about this model?
Goodwriterspens's Blog 
Hello Deb,
In my Esterbrook phase at different times I had a total of four of these. It was identified to me on FPN as the ‘Relief M’, it and the 14ct Relief Renew Point being manufactured only in England. I have only seen them in small ‘J’ size. Most seem to be black although I did get one blue one and I presume there are other plain colours. I kept one with a perfectly unworn nib, which is a lovely writer, more of stub than my favourite two 9312 italics.
Best wishes,
Timothy
Thank you, Timothy. It’s good to be able to put a name to it. My one is dark green. I haven’t even dip tested this one yet but the tip looks very smooth, viewed with a loupe.
Yes Brian Anderson proposed that these be called an M pen based on the pen in this FPN (wash my mouth out with soap and water) link http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/12454-relief-m-35/ even though the consensus was that this was a pen with a medium sized nib and costing 35 shillings per the chalk marks on the pen.
They came in Green, Blue, Black and Red that I have seen and the nibs are generally glorious smooth obliques. I guess they date from the 60s.
You are clearly better at paying attention than I, I left holding bids on both this pen and your leather Wyvern, but forgot to bid again before the item ended. Perhaps I should sign up to a sniping service.
Yes, I would think 60s too. Though the clip is cowled, in other respects it looks like the one on the Parker Victory III. Just coincidence.
I just put my maximum bid in and let it run. I lose more pens that way…
very interesting comments from such well informed people as Timothy and Simon, but have I missed something re the filling issue caused by the lack of a sac nipple, or is there some reference to this in the link?:-) I know less than nothing about Esterbrook – might this be a cartridge pen?
Until recent times I’ve been in the habit of bidding on ebay for f.ps., but now have many of the more common models and have now almost dropped out of this practice, and have to say that although I considered sniping, didn’t in the end go that far. Being of a passionate nature I preferred to sit at the screen and ‘live bid’ at the end of an auction ……….. my opinion being that if a high, maximum, bid is entered too early it only encourages others to run up their offers, pushing the final price to a potentially unrealistic level.
So, my strategy was to place a small bid very early in the auction, go back to sleep, then hit the button at around three or four seconds prior to the end, with a high bid. This was giving me success in the majority of cases, earlier on, but collectors are reckless folk and of late they seem to be throwing more and more caution to the wind and many were adopting this method of bidding.
This system cost me dearly on a couple of occasions, but I told myself that my ‘bargain wins’ amply compensated me for those rare occasions were I had paid too much. It’s easy lying to yourself, there’s no one to contradict you.
Now I prefer visiting antiques fair and markets – much easier on the sanity. :-):-)
Hi Paul, The issue of the lack of a sac nipple is one I will have to resolve but it isn’t a cartridge pen. There is a lever on the barrel and no apparatus for piercing a cartridge.
I agree with you about early high bids causing increased bidding on an item, but often the bidding will close when I am not going to be around. If I am, like you I will bid in the last instant. There are no antiques fairs or the like here so my options are limited.
quote …………………. “There is a lever on the barrel and no apparatus for piercing a cartridge.” doh!! My apologies Deborah – obviously I had seen the lever in your first picture – I must be asleep still:-)
It is rather a puzzle as there is no sign that sac nipple has broken off.