A recently acquired gold-filled overlay pen that is marked KEYSTONE on the clip and lever raised the question, “Who made this pen?” There are online discussions in pen blogs that suggest Keystone pens (and pencils too) were made by either Wearever or a nefarious huckster named James Kelley.
There once was a Keystone brand attributed to David Kahn of Wearever that, similar to the clip design on the overlay pens, contained a K inside of a diamond or a K inside of a keystone shape. The type-style used for KEYSTONE on the clips is the same. The rumor is that overlay pens were made by Wearever during the 1920s and the K stands for Kahn. If so, where are they?
Good research on Keystone and Kelley can be found on the Leadheads Blog, that I do not believe tells the entire story, perhaps, there are more stories to tell?
James Kelley was an enterprising entrepreneur who appropriated the trade name Keystone from Soper & Sievewright, a maker of taper-cap eyedropper-filling model overlay pens, when their copywrite of the name expired. Kelley marketed lower-priced pens and pencils with the name Keystone through the 1920s and early 1930s. However, extant Keystone overlay pens appear to be of substantially higher quality than that would be produced by a low-budget operation.
Surpsingly, of five Keystone pens recently sold online four had either British or French 18K nibs and four of the pens came from France. Three have an overlay design that includes a heart-shaped indicia or cartouche that matches the overlay design used by my pen and that used by Morrison. Two models have a wave design common to many American makers. Each was sold by a different seller. Let’s assume that the three were made by Morrison. Overlay styles were not generic. There have features that point to specific pen makers or from jobbers who sold overlays of specific patterns. In my opinion the patterns here point to one maker – Morrison, or whoever sold them the overlays.
Three, including mine, have the same design clip with the K in the diamond. Unfortunately, the model from Germany does not have a clip to compare. However, three of the five have the name KEYSTONE with the K in the diamond on the lever.
Model from France above.
Model from German ebay
above
My pen has an 18 carat French accounting nib of unknown
vintage. Was it a replacement? And, of the other pens? All replacements? As
best we know Morrison did not market their product in France, Great Britain, or
Europe. Should gold-filled overlay pens have had a certain cachet in France we
should see pens with 18 carat nibs by other makers in similarly representative
quantities. Do we? What if Kelley took his act to Europe or found a buyer for a
hundred or so pens in France? Methinks greater investigation is needed.