A Transition Balance?
...Of Course!

by Sherrell Tyree
(All rights reserved by author)

Collectors frequently encounter "mystery pens." These pens run the gamut from the "No Names" to the unexpected styles produced by major manufacturers. For the "No Names," one wonders why someone troubled to make a pen but then neglected to mark it. Some pens are marked but with a name you have not seen in any book. Further research may tell you that the pen is a secondary line of one of the major manufacturers. Remex, for instance, was a secondary line produced by Waterman, and Servo, produced by The Moore Pen Company.

Then there are the pens that were produced by major companies but deviate from the company's general style. Parker's lever fillers immediately come to mind. Why, you wonder, would Parker decide to make a lever-filler? Certainly, the decision was not due to failure of the button and vacuum-fillers. Did Parker purchase these from another manufacturer? Doing so would have enabled them to test the market without the cost of tooling up for a new line. One wonders.

Finally, there are the pens, equally mysterious, that surprise collectors. These pens are clearly labeled but are comprised of parts that seemingly should not be together. They are "eyebrow-raisers." Again, you wonder. Is the pen a quality control oversight, a joke by an assembler, the result of a chief financial officer saying, "Use what is on hand?" It is equally possible that the pen was the creation of a talented prior owner-a result you do not want-or a desirable example of a previously undocumented new model. I have seen some Sheaffers that were good examples of prior-owner construction. One of the more mysterious Sheaffers was long thought to be one of these constructions. Certainly, it is an eyebrow-raiser-part Balance, part flattop. For decades, people have questioned whether it was a real Sheaffer product. In this article, we will answer the question and probably raise others. Finding the answer requires us to look at Sheaffer during its first 21 years.

Sheaffer was a relative latecomer to the world of fountain pen manufacturers. When Walter Sheaffer's first pens were produced in 1908, fifty or so pen companies existed. Among them were Parker, Holland, Conklin, and Waterman, each of which at that time had at least five years experience and substantial customer bases. Imagine their reactions to the common little black hard rubber pens produced in Walter Sheaffer's back room-noteworthy only because of the new lever-filler. Probably the new filling system was all that kept them from laughing aloud. Surely they were not intimidated when Sheaffer and his associates began selling these pens in 1912.

Walter Sheaffer intended to intimidate them-by taking part of their market share. He had been a successful salesman and shrewd retailer for several years. Retailing fountain pens was a risky venture. One gathers that succeeding was, for him, a matter of pride and money. He was unaccustomed to failure; moreover, he had a family to support. He incorporated the Sheaffer Pen Company, confident that hard work and a great product would make his venture successful. He worked hard and ferociously defended his profits and styles. Eventually his confidence was rewarded.

Sheaffer made money from the first year; when it ended, the new company had captured three percent of the pen market. Sheaffer historians say there were more orders than could be filled! Still, Walter Sheaffer could not afford to rest on an assumption that this growth rate would continue. Except for the filling system, the pens were rather ordinary when compared to others. They were also expensive. To assure increasing market share, necessary if for no other reason than to cover the expenses of expansion and pursuing lawsuits, Sheaffer became quite the innovator. Products he introduced during the 1920s included desk pens, lifetime guarantees on nibs (1920), celluloid pens (1924), Skrip writing fluid (1922) and all-metal pens (1923). These innovations, those of the previous decade, and extensive advertising in the Saturday Evening Post, resulted in continued growth in income and market share.

Beyond its filling system, the innovation that was a major factor in Sheaffer becoming an important manufacturer was plastics. More precisely, it was "celluloid." Sheaffer's use of the material for caps and barrels had a lasting effect on the writing instrument industry. Hard rubber had never been completely satisfactory. It limited the colors that could be used for pens and it was heavy. Early in the 1920s, Du Pont produced Pyroxylin, a celluloid that could be molded into any desired shape and could be dyed a variety of solid or multiple colors and designs. It was also lighter and more flexible than hard rubber. This product was just what was needed to assure Sheaffer capturing significant market share and even assuring its place in history. Sheaffer contracted with Du Pont for Pyroxylin, re-named it Radite, produced the first celluloid jade Lifetime pen in 1924, and never looked back. Think what an eye-popper this pen must have been against the field of black, red, and mottled hard rubber pens. According to Andy Lambrou, Sheaffer's market share increased 2,000% between 1913 and 1925, while the pen industry increased only 400% as a whole. Most of Sheaffer's growth occurred between 1923 and 1925 and is a direct result of their use of this innovative material.

The 1920s was a decade of innovation, technological advance, prosperity, and style. By decade's end, streamlining became the fashion of the day, and this trend was not lost on Sheaffer. A new streamlined pen was introduced at the 1929 annual sales meeting as the Balance pen. Using a tapered cap and barrel to provide a streamlined shape, the pen was distinct from every other pen then marketed. What a contrast to the earlier flattops! The range included a variety of sizes, including petite models. They came with clips or as ringtops. The colors available were jade, black, and pearl and black. A new color, Marine (green and black mottled) was introduced in 1930. An extensive and intensive worldwide advertising campaign accompanied the introduction of the pens.

Sheaffer could not predict how well these remarkable pens would be received, so they continued producing the flattops, initially at the same prices as the Balances. Sheaffer also had another plan for hedging its bet. It produced a pen that had a Balance cap and a flat-bottomed barrel. Collectors knew these pens later as the Transition Balance, our mystery pen. Sheaffer never characterized the pen as a transition pen, although the terminology is apt.

Why the pens were created is a mystery. Theories abound-the official story is that Sheaffer made this pen as an alternative for customers who wanted a small, rather than radical, change. Two facts lend some credence to this theory-a 1931 advertisement for the Balance says that, "Old flat-top pens can be purchased for less, but the discriminating buyer will continue to buy the Balancedª White Dot Lifetimeª." It is also known that years later, Sheaffer simultaneously produced lever and plunger-fillers, as well as traditional and Triumph nibs, purportedly to provide buyers a choice. It is reasonable to accept the theory of customer choice as the reason for the existence of the Transition Balance.

So, how did the pen look? These pictures from the 1930 catalog show each of its variations.

In this catalog, Sheafer identified them as " Barrel end flat with Balance cap." The available sizes were 8AC, the oversized; 74AC, the regular full-size; and 74AR, the ringtop. You can see from the picture that the regular sized pen was notably smaller than the comparable Balance.

The pen, we believe, was produced for no more than two years, 1929 and 1930. Certainly, the need for it was limited-the public was very receptive to the Balance range. At the February, 1929 annual meeting, Sheaffer executives reported the pens were selling very well.

Not many of these pens exist today, primarily because those who erroneously believed they were mismatched have separated them-mating them with a Balance barrel. Unfortunately, the re-combinations are incorrect.

Since they are still found in the wild, it is helpful to know whether a given pen is authentic. It is hard to imagine why anyone would put together such a combination, but all things are possible. Some characteristics of the genuine article include:

• White Dot on the cap, none on the barrel.
• The lever is a solid bar-there is no channel on the underside of the lever.
• The lever will be pinned, not on a ring.
• The cap will have the long humped clip, nearly touching or touching the band.
• The feed is the flat, comb style.
• The nib will be the large Lifetime with numbers.
• The pen, in the regular size, was much smaller than the comparably sized Balance, measuring 4 5/8", whereas the Balance measured 5 1/16". (Note there is variation in the sizes of these early Balances, but I believe the relative sizes were constant.)

These pens should be very collectible because of the oddity of their existence, the ease of dating them, their relative rarity, the fact that they are first and second-year pens, and simply because they are Sheaffer curiosities. I see many of them in black and pearl, and a few in black. I have not yet encountered a jade. The jades should be in the darker shade which, apparently, was used after about 1927. The value on them seems a bit higher than for standard Balances, with color and condition having the same effect on values.

So-there were "Transition Balances". . . and there were not. Hope you find an example in each color.

A Transition Balance? ...Of Course! n Continued from page 10

Koch, L.P. "Reminiscences of W.A. Sheaffer Pen Company-Conclusion," Pen Fanciers Magazine, July/August 1992.

Lambrou, Andreas. Fountain Pens of the World, Essex, England:Classic Pens Ltd., 1995.

"News of 1929," Pen Fanciers Magazine, April 1985.

"Sheaffer's PensÐDesk Sets-Pencils-Skrip." Catalog. June 1930.

L. Michael Fultz. Personal communication. 2002.

A. Dan Reppert. Personal communication. 2002.

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