I picked up this 4260 recently, a post-war Leverless in very good condition. It came in a repair box with a cover note stating that it had been repaired in Yeovil by W. Gibson Esq. in 1951. It seems that pen repair runs in the family!

That aside, this was the last in the long and successful line of the paddle Leverlesses. Shortly after this pen left the factory Mabie Todd re-tooled for production of a pressure-bar Leverless, an excellent and efficient design but not such a pleasure to repair.

I haven’t seen one of those cover notes before though I’ve had lots of Swans in repair boxes. I suppose they were thrown away though the box was kept. What makes this one different is that I don’t think the pen was used after repair. When I flushed it no ink appeared and when I ran a cotton bud through the section it came out clean. Here’s a little supposition: by time the pen came back from repair the owner, in need of something to write with, had picked up one of those new-fangled Biros. The Leverless was set aside in the drawer until the ballpoint was used up, with every intention of going back to it, but the Biro proved so convenient that a replacement refill was bought, and another, and another…