Pilot Delux - Archival

The following is archival information of a page from Ryojusen Pens that is n ow on the Wayback Machine. We re-present it for your enjoyment. Images do not transfer well from the Wayback Machine. Apologies but you get the idea.

An array of some of the Delux models available.The Delux was also used as a platform for traditional makie. Those models are not shown.

From left to right:

• Black - Metal cap and Plastic barrel. Lacquer over cap. 1977, 1978
• Red - Metal cap and Plastic barrel. Lacquer over cap. ¥10,000.

The above two models are the initial design that features a large gold colored sloped transition piece at the bottom of the cap. Both date from 1976.

• Fine Fluted - R14K Gold Filled cap and barrel. ¥25,000. A model in fine barley design also exists. See below. 1976
• Crosshatch - Sterling Silver. ¥13,000. 1979.
• Black Overlay - Brushed Stainless Steel, Photoengraved. ¥10,000. 1977.
• Green Lacquer - Urushi over metal cap and barrel. ¥16,000. Known in other colors, as well. 1977.
• Striped - Red urushi over metal cap and barrel. ¥40,000. 1978.
• Seirei-nuri - Black lacquer and gold over metal cap and barrel. ¥25,000. Known in red as well. 1977.
• Sakura - Gold cherry blossoms and dust over metal cap and barrel. ¥25,000. 1977.
• Triangles - Gold over black lacquer over metal barrel and cap. 1978.
• Silver Design - Embossed pattern with clear lacquer over on metal cap and barrel. 1976. Sections come in w red, and other colors.
•                                        
• Botan (Peony) - Hiramakie over metal cap and barrel. ¥20,000. 1980.
• Ryu (Dragon) - Hiramakie over metal cap and barrel. ¥20,000. 1982.
• Tsuru (Crane) - Hiramakie over metal cap and barrel. ¥20,000. 1979.
• Ume (Plum Blossom) - Hiramakie over metal cap and barrel. Y20,000. 1979.
• Limited Edition - Hiramakie over metal cap and barrel. 1994.
• Black - Lacquer over metal cap and barrel. Reissue. 1995. Also known in Brown.
  
• Blue - Lacquer over metal cap and barrel. ¥16,000. 1984.

The makie model below was seen on Yahoo Japan Auctions. The nib is date-coded 689.

                                                     

Fine barley finish. Note the 14K nib.

                                           

Recent Pilot Catalogue

Key Details

  

Holy Mother Of Toilet Seat

 

Always good to have a provocative title.

That was my first reaction on seeing this bunch of combo pen/pencils made by the Southern Pen Company.  Second was I had to have them - am a sucker for interesting celluloid. 

So what’s “Mother of toilet seat’? "Mother of toilet seat" is pearloid, a plastic produced by swirling together chunks of celluloid in a solvent, then curing, which gives it a mother of pearl effect." Its use to cover toilet seats in the 1940s and 1950s led to its nickname. It is often used as parts for electric guitars. My guitar body is clad in grayish MOTS.

The Southern pens bear little resemblance to MOTS but, since the celluloid was so unusual, MOTS first came to mind. Celluloid is an amazing material that can be used to great esthetic effect, is very attractive, and displays well. 

There are combo collectors out there who like to show off their finds. A friend has a substantial collection of pretty plastic and always asks if I have any. He ain't getting these.

From Left: Largest size (Called Jumbo in sales literature?). Large size but smaller. Green. Cream & Black. Blue. Salerno.

The three pens with decorative bands have ten facetted sides

The large size Jumbo model is large and the coloration is the same as the smaller model. Of note is the simple cap band compared to the more decorative bands on the smaller models. It also has a removable section where an eraser is supposed to be - it was trashed, so it was removed.

The pen at the right is a Salerno - nice simple and elegant. Am wondering if it was named after the World War II battle.

 

Most everyone will tell you that Southern Pens only came with steel gold plated nibs. This is not true and literature clearly states they can be ordered with gold nibs. The ad is a few years earlier than this group of pens and is courtesy of an eBay sale. Note at the bottom right. The second from the left pen has a 14K nib. Models with gold nibs are likely to be rare.

Levers with the company name, Southern Pen Co. were used on pens although there are a good number models that lack the embossing. Same lever, no embossing. 

Southern Pen used several clip designs. Most included the letter S, sometimes stylized, in a circle, or triangle. See the tiny S, no name clip, and triangle S below. The blue pen above has a highly stylized clip that is found on many models.

Notice the derby found on some models. I've seen two distinct types. Nice feature.

 

It may be this batch of pens. Maybe not. It took much time and almost too much heat to remove the section fron the barrel. What appeared to be a tight fit from slightly shrunk celluloid was the section being adhered to the barrel. More Southern Pens have not visited my shop yet and experimenting on all five pens is not planned. Judicious heat worked, just barely.

Southern Pen catered to a middle class working person market that could not afford or need a high-class pen from a first tier maker yet still needed a good working pen. They are durable and the steel nibs write well. To make the pens affordable gold fill was as thin as possible and steel nibs were standard. Cannot say if the plastic was cheap. If you look hard enough there are enough clean specimens with some gold  remaining on the trim and gold nibs.

And, now...to find more interesting plastic.Will post as they are added.

Tu Barry or Not DuBarry - Part II

Part I showed how Eclipse just may have sold pens to the National Pen Products Company of Chicago. The pens look awfully alike, with the same sectioins and feeds, and the same levers. Let’s take a closer look.

The above image shows the red and green DuBarry along with the Diamond Medal. To make it interesting the fourth pen is an Eclipse Park Row. The fifth is a similar Eclipse with a narrower barrel. The added Park Row threads neatly onto the DuBarry and Gold Medal. Note the feed, lever with wreath with no lever box, and the general shape and size of the pens is the same.

I enjoy theorizing. Often wrong, here goes. What if DuBarry was the name of a pen model sent to National for review. Model names are often in quotations. They may have placed a model name on the clip so it cannot be resold. There was nothing special or product in the public realm with the name DuBarry to advertise in the late 1920s so that could not be why the name.

Some early Gold Medal pens had the ornate GM logo on clips. What if those pens were quietly, almost covertly, supplied by Eclipse. If I was an up and coming pen maker and distributor like National would it be best to keep my sources close to the vest. Would I want my customers to know my pens were purchased from a competitor?

My guess, and this is only a wild-assed guess, is that the early Eclipses for National are of high-quality with really decent nibs. Eclipse would have enjoyed National as a customer and supplied a first-rate product. Unfortunately for Eclipse, National decided to go with other suppliers. My second wild-0assed guess is that the Eclipse/Gold Medal pens are a tad harder to find as not many were made.

Now I know I’ll get several email telling me I got it all wrong. If so, bring it on.

There just might be a part three and four.

Collecting Japanese Pens

 

My interest in collecting Japanese pens began about 2000. I was hooked on collecting pens and wanted to get my wife interested in my new hobby. She is from Japan so, I thought, what could be better.

At the right of this blog is her family mon – Japanese family crest, that is unique to her family. She can trace her family lineage back to before the Genpei War when they lived in Kyoto.

From the Wikipedia, The Genpei War (1180-1185) was a national civil war between the Taira and Minamoto (Tales of Genji story) clans during the late Heian Period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira.

Her family was on the losing side and escaped to friendly territory in the Tosa domain on the island of Shikoku. They landed in a mountainous area near a place called Sakawa in the western part of Kochi Prefecture and over the centuries were noted as accomplished doctors.

They were moderately well-to-do samurai. Visiting her family ancestral home all that remained was the foundation but, I could see it was big – approximately forty feet deep by ninety feet wide and the area under their control stretched across several valleys. With the conclusion of the war, sickness in the family and land reform bankrupted them. Some of their family heritage now resides in the Kochi Castle Museum of History.

Some consider me an expert on Japanese pens. Having bought and sold quite many pens over twenty years I acquired an appreciation and understanding of the development of fountain pens in Japan. One has introductions to many makers, the good, the bad, and pretty ugly. There are uncanny parallels to pen development in America as both reflect human nature.

Images of my collection will be posted periodically. There is a link today to a copy of an article written for the Winter 2006 issue of PENNANT, published by the Pen Collectors of America. It includes images of a few great pens.

                               

Who do I consider the premium smaller makers.

·       Silver. Hate to use a generic term. Silver overlay pens were mostly made in the 1920s and early 1930s and sold by jewelers. Many have hand-carved decoration, are signed by the artist, and are unique. Highly desireable.

·       Yotubisi (sometimes Yotsubishi). All Yotubishi have a four star logo on either the cap band or clip. The quality of their makie meets or exceeds almost everything done by Pilot or other maker during the 1950s. After the war there were limited opportunities for highly-skilled specialized artisans. Yotubisi retained them for these wonderful pens. Even the plain ebonite models are of higher than average quality.

·       Marukin. They made mostly veined hard rubber pens in the 1930s. Exceptional quality. Very good nibs. Occasionally their nibs can be found recycled on upgrade pens from the 1930s and 1950s.

·       North Star. Another maker of veined hard rubber pens. Great quality.

·       Popura. Ignore their postwar models. Mostly cheap plastic. Go for prewar. Good quality. Some carved ebonite.

·       Carved pens. They were the heart of my collection and are difficult to locate. Prices have escalated almost beyond reason. My understanding is that they began as souvenir pens from shops that lined access roads to temples and later at nearby train stations and were inexpensive. One finds models from the 1920s through the mid-1950s. They all tell a story and are a treasure.

 

No Returns – Restored

June 3, 2025

Linking the two thoughts might seem incongruous. It is not. How often do sellers at your favorite online auction site, eBay, display the following on their pages.

          

Should this be a deterrent from bidding? What if you don’t like what you received or, worse, if it is not as described in the posting?

There is a solution. Ask questions. Ask away. Get as many precise answers from sellers as possible. I have asked about the extent of and where any brassing exists on gold overlay pens. I specifically mentioned areas of concern such as clips, bands, edges of the metal overlays, etc.  To make the question very clear I explained to the seller what brassing is, as some sellers are either clueless and act as much. Should your pen arrive with brassing, you can return your pen.

Fading and crystallization of celluloid and discoloration of hard rubber are other issues commonly encountered. Seller photographs are not always great and even misleading – maybe not intended to be. But, have seen more than enough images that beg the question. Ask if the color of the pen is consistent in the barrel and cap. If the seller replies yes and it is not, you have the right to return the pen.

How? Ebay allows returns for items not as described. The description extends to responses in correspondence with the seller. Photographs that describe the issue are required for the return. Ebay workers probably never review most requests for returns but, having a good written description of the pen and issue, mention of communication, responses, and providing photographic evidence, essentially, forces sellers to accept the return. Otherwise, eBay will reimburse you and deduct your reimbursement from the sellers account.

Restored falls in a similar category. Here’s an image from their site.

What does restored mean? Part of the dictionary definition reads....

1: to put or bring back into existence or use

2: to bring back to or put back into a former or original state 

Ask how was the pen restored. What work was done? Does replacing the sac or flushing the section satisfy the definition of restored? What about wiping down the pen with Simichrome or taking silver polish to the trim? To me, restore means to bring back to new condition and, surprisingly, eBay supports this definition. When requesting the return copy and paste the definition from the dictionary. 

The key here again is to ask questions. Most sellers want sales to go smoothly with no buyer issues and will accept returns, no questions asked. However, some need encouragement.

I’m told similar issues exist for buyers of Japanese pens at Yahoo Japan. I've purchased more than a few pens from there and seller shenanigans are much more egregious. The real bummer is that as a foriegner buying through a proxy service the pen cannot be returned. Caveat emptor, I guess.

Probably the best explanation for selling a re-somethinged pen is refurbished with description of what was done. Even better might be no explanation at all. Take your chances and let the buyer be surprised. 

Sellers – be careful. Buyers – be even more careful.

Next Issue:

    More on the DuBarry connection.

    Some interesting flat tops.