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.