Swan Safety Pen eyedropper, 1948-1952

The cap on this one caught my eye with its guilloche-like chasing.

Fortunately it polished up very nicely, and straightening the clip was easy. The pen was an eyedropper and a cinch to clean. Sharp imprint, barrel mostly clean. Its Swan #1 14C nib is a fairly stiff medium stub.

This pen was made 1948-1952 according to “The Chronicle of the Fountain Pen” by Martins, Leite and Gagean. (Lambrou’s “Fountain Pens of the World” mentions that 1948 saw Mabie Todd offer pens with #1 nibs for sale, though it’s unclear whether the nibs first appeared in 1948.) By this period Mabie Todd’s fortunes were well in decline and one is tempted to link that with the pen. Overall it feels a bit too light and the cap, though brilliant, is thin-walled. The tines are balanced but the nib slit is just slightly off the centre of the breather hole. The feed is straight but the sides leading up to the tip are not evenly ground. The knurling at the end of the barrel is cosmetic and probably meant to make the pen look like a Leverless model. There was no number or model name given to this pen, though it was probably made for export and shared many components with other pens — possibly including the 3160.

Capped length – 5 inches / 12.7 cm
Uncapped length – 4.5 inches / 11.4 cm

Thanks to Deb Gibson (http://www.goodwriterspensales.com/) and “Hugh” on FPB for the info. Brian Anderson has the same model and he shared pics of it on Pentrace –http://members2.boardhost.com/pentrace/msg/1356907591.html