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The Fountain Pen Community -> Patent's, History and General Pen Research -> Revisiting Balance Dates
Post Info TOPIC: Revisiting Balance Dates
PeteWK


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Revisiting Balance Dates
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One of my favorite Fountain Pen websites is http://www.richardspens.com. Richard Binder offers some excellent resources for hobbiests. For this Topic I'd like to re-examine Sheaffer Balance dating starting with the Richard's site as a centering point.

He lists dates around colors and clips with the admission that there is some elasticity there. His dates are as follows:

The Colors of the Balance
Color Name and Years Used (Made)

Jet Black 1929-1945

Jade Green 1929-1932

Pearl and Black 1929-1934

Marine Green 1930-1935

Red Veined Grey Pearl 1931-1935

Blue[1] 1932

Grey Pearl 1934-1936

Ebonized Pearl 1934-1939

Golden Brown Striated 1936-1945

Grey Pearl Striated 1936-1945

Rose Glow Striated 1936-1939

Marine Green Striated 1937-1945

Carmine Striated 1939-1945


PeteWK

-- Edited by PeteWK at 13:13, 2007-09-07

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PeteWK


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The Black
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I think we can all be certain that Sheaffer offered Black every single year the Balance was in existence. That was their bread and butter. Always a classy pen and always in style.

PeteWK

Pictured are a couple of typical Black Balances. The large model is from the late 1930 and the standard size from about 1935. On request I'll include photos of the nibs which are both Broad tips.





-- Edited by PeteWK at 21:12, 2007-09-07

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PeteWK


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Jade Green
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I've run into a few speed bumps and a few points of interest in my quest to date Balance pens.  The Jade is solid at 1929 to 1932.  I have a Sheaffer Dealer's Poster dated October 8, 1931 that lists what I believe is a complete offering of their Desk sets and Ensembles.  There are no Jade vest pens sold in Jade but Sheaffer continued to offer the color in a Desk pen.  And given that Sheaffer made of habit of running a line of pens from late one year to the mid point of the next, it's safe to place the Jade pen, at least a Desk pen, into 1932.

PeteWK

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Daniel


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RE: Revisiting Balance Dates
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PeteWK wrote:

I've run into a few speed bumps and a few points of interest in my quest to date Balance pens.  The Jade is solid at 1929 to 1932.  I have a Sheaffer Dealer's Poster dated October 8, 1931 that lists what I believe is a complete offering of their Desk sets and Ensembles.  There are no Jade vest pens sold in Jade but Sheaffer continued to offer the color in a Desk pen.  And given that Sheaffer made of habit of running a line of pens from late one year to the mid point of the next, it's safe to place the Jade pen, at least a Desk pen, into 1932.

PeteWK


Jade production went into 1939 based on the configuration of known examples.

--Daniel



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PeteWK


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I appreciate your wading into the subject.  My interest lies primarily in documentation.  Do you have any examples, ads, catalogs, price sheets etc?  Also, I'm not including the Sheaffer Jr. in this survey.

PeteWK

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PeteWK


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I should also point out for all interested parties one of the main reasons this board and specifically this Research Forum exists.  We intended that this place be free of the "Pen Gurus".  To be honest, there really aren't any.  There are collectors who are more knowledgable, have read more or who have access to people or information others don't.

Each of us is prone to mistakes and errors of judgement, in short we're often wrong.  That's OK here.  The value is in the collective struggle to learn.  We wanted to build a place where group think could take place free of some one person stopping the discussion with their "Superior" opinion.

Share your opinion and throw up a picture or scan to help illustrate your point.  Or throw up last night's meatloaf if you can't do that.

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PeteWK


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Pearl and Black
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This is one of the three original colors along with Black and Jade from 1929 (Marine Green coming in the following year.  Richard Binder dates the pen from 1929 to 1934.  I can only find catalog or advertising data to support the pen from 1929 to 1932 but I do own a Pearl and Black with a later flattened clip ball which would push the pen up to that date.  I'm personally going to go even further to the first half of 1935.  It seems evident from advertising during 1934 that the flat clip came into use late in that year.  Further, the flattened clip made its catalog appearance in August of 1935 sans the Pearl and Black
 color.  That should indicate that the Pearl and Black with flattened clip was available and produced until sometime in early 1935 before
 the catalog came out.

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