You don’t often see a pocket size Swan Safety Screw Cap. It sports a No 2 nib and is more practical than it might at first seem. It is 10.9 cm capped but a more practical 14 cm posted. The little pen is in good order. The barrel imprint shows up well as does the chasing but there is some wear on the gold plated broad band. The band has a very artistic superimposed collection of initials which I am struggling to make out: clearly there is a T with an A and what looks like a G but there is something else there that I can’t puzzle out! Very attractive, anyway.

The Safety Screw Cap was about the last of the eyedropper fillers, going into production in 1915 and proving popular, judging by the numbers that survive. This little pen qualifies as an antique, then, being fully a century old. It is of its time, both in that it is an original eyedropper filler and in that it was designed to be kept in the pocket of a waistcoat which very few wear nowadays.

It remains a quite practical writer. Both sets of threads, those which enclose the ink in the barrel and those which close the pen, are in excellent condition. The nib is smooth and has some flexibility.

Edit: It has been pointed out to me that this monogram is AT together with the Christian fish symbol. That does seem likely. Many thanks, Jens!