Diamond Point Pen Company

Pens from the Diamond Point Pen Company of New York, specifically flat top models from the 1920s and early 1930s, have become a special interest. The variety of designs and colors in rubber and celluloid is immense. Has anyone catalogued them all? There do not appear to be any catalogues for the marque. How could they with their varied production.

The pens are generally organized by my supposed year of production.

Models came with both WARRANTED and DIAMOND POINT 14K nibs. Occasionally, pens are found with nibs of other makers. Presumably replacements.

We will provide updates as pens become available. We owe some images that describe how to tell the models apart and what typical nibs are like. That is forthcoming this week.

Beaumel Fountain Pen Company

My first Beaumel pen was an ARISTOCRAT found at teh Chicago Pen Show lumped in a pile of many other pens. Except for superficial dirt it looked new. Even had the original price tag. Was a steal for the price. Soon after there was a lapis blue celluloid DURABILT for sale on eBay. Blue is my color and decided to go for it. Both pens were discovered to be good, maybe high, quality writing instruments. Pretty good pens for a second tier maker from New York. 

Two other DURABILT pen quickly came home with me. I have an eye for them now. One had an original label and was a new pen. Label was torn. Now repaired.

A surprise was that the DURABILT pens come with 18Ct nibs. All three celluloid models have the same nib. Very few American pen makers used 18Ct nibs. Note they are marked 18Ct in the Euroipean fashion and not 18K or 18KT. Beaumel was a small company making me wonder if they contracted production of pens to another firm or produced them in-house. There is no rocket science n manufacturing lever filler fountain pens so, if they had the factory space and the people, they could be made anywhere. My guess is the pens and nibs came from Morrision. See the prior post noting the 18K nib on the Morrision pen. this is omething to look for in the future.

It is often difficult to determine production dates for vintage pens without documentation. Big makers pens were often displayed in colorful advertisements in magazines and dated sales literature. I was fortunate to find the following two mentions through Google Books, that is a fascinating resource for researching anything. From the patent information and advertisement it appears the ARISTOCRAT may have been made in 1925 or later. They do not mention DURABILT though, if you look closely, there are ARISTOCRAT models in other colors than black. Could they be DURABILT? My guess is the DURABILT models came a year or two after the ARISTOCRAT lineup.

Below is presentation box with additional pens. Box and pens were obtained during recent visit to San Francisco Pen Show. The two combos were a 'gift' from an ebay seller.

Need a few more pens to fill the empty slots. Please help. We are aware of a yellow model and a black and white celluloid. The hunt continues.

Updating the accumulation we've added enlargements of more pens and the combos from the box above. All of the Durabilt pens we have seen are vividly colored. Those are, in fact, two different shades of blue in the image above. Celluloid models have remarkable depth to the celluloid.

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The following pen bears the imprint of the Gaydoul Gold Pen Company on the barrel. Gaydoul was a New York nib maker that produced WARRANTED nibs as well as nibs under their name. The sold pens from different makers and, for awhile, Conklin shared their office.

There is a new addition today. Another combo. Pen has a Gaydoul Gold Pen Co. nib and unmarked Durabilt clip. Threading is exactly the same as the other combos. Plastic is exactly the same. What was Gaydoul's relationship to Beaumel? The pen is inscribed Majestic Distributing Corporation of Cleveland on the barrel and is personalized with the name of Paul Bellamy. A Paul Bellamy was editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. This may have been a gift to him from the company.

From top to bottom: Durabilt Pen, Gaydoul Combo. Gaydoul Combo with Durabilt nib.

Exactly the same plastic.

What did Majestic distribute? 

They peddled one of the best radios of the era. Wish I had oneof these puppies.

Adding to the mystery of who made the pens for Beaumel we have a new addition. Unmarked with a sterling accommodation clip it is the same length, diameter, threading, lever, and most importantly, made from the same celluloid. Removing the clip, it exhibits two vertical bolt holes typical for clips used prior to common Z clips. Could it be an earlier Beaumel? What other maker in New York made pens of the same celluloid? Diamond Point quickly comes to mind. So does Harris. 

Left to right: Mystery pen. Gaydoul/Durabilt. Durabilt

All of the same celluloid

Closer up

St. Louis Pen Show

 We did not attend the show in person. Only there by proxy where our accomplice found three pens for the collection. By proxy, a friend attended the show and sent some images of pens with prices. We gave them an understanding of our wants and hoped for the best.

From top to bottom.........

Welty. Celluloid or some other kind of plastic. 14K nib. Nice writer. After this pen have decided there are more than enough red pens in the collection.

Morrison with uber rare 18K nib. Celluloid. The colors are real. Not faded. It is the same size with similar rings and clip as my other Morrision. Nice surprise as celluloid Morrisons are high on my list. See comments in following post on Beaumel and 18K nib.

Accurate. Came with trashy gold-plated nib that we swapped out for a half-decent 14K WARRANTED nib. Needed some tuning and now is a super writing pen. Pen came with a surprise inside the barrel. The ink used by a prior owner was an almost permanent blue ink. Cleaning the cap and section created stains that took several hours to remove.

I said three pens. What is the fourth green one? That's another ACCURATE that recently arrived. It comes with the standard 14K gold-plated nib. It is a very economical, super cheaply made pen. Looks it and feels so. The yellow is of higher quality, though. Not much but does show it. This may be the beginning of a new cheapo pen black hole I'm digging for myself. Am wondering who made these pens.