This 1930s Platinum was in the pile of pens just received from my friend in Japan. It was in super excellent condition and it immediately found its place in an appropriate storage tray.
Many of the early Platinum makie models are eyedroppers as this was the common means of filling pens in Japan in that era. There are no statistics regarding eyedroppers versus lever fillers though, it is rumored 10%-15% of pens were lever filler types.
A variety of this model is shown on page 294 of Fountain Pens of Japan, this being the rarer lever filler. Likely the craftsman was Rosui who designed many of the makie pens for Platinum. FPOJ describes the lacquer work as Urumi-shu-nuri (dark red-black) with raden clouds.
The band is likely gold fill as described in FPOJ and has been lacquered over in gold. When the pen arrived the clip was a flat black suggestive of black lacquer. Ever curious of how pens are assembled and quality of materials a peek under the clip revealed the kanji for silver and 900 stamped on then underside. I have never seen a silver clip on an older makie pen. Very judiciously, rubbing with Simchrome soon exposed the clip metal and indeed it is silver. I'd like to learn if other Platinum makie pens had silver clips. Mention in FPOJ is only of 14 karat rolled gold trim. Maybe, a real find.
