The Eclipse company is
one of those pen makers that normal people have never heard of, common
or garden pen weirdos have some vague notion of, and only really
specialized pen savants have a real grip on. Since I fall
somewhere between the latter two, I can't contribute much to the fund
of knowledge. Eclipse started in the US in the rough and tumble
pen world of the early 20th century (a different company having been
bought and re-named in 1903), and in the mid-1920s was a big enough
player to open a plant in Canada. The late 1920s were bad
economic news, and the Eclipse company, like so many other pen makers,
took it in the teeth. However, the Canadian wing, apparently
because they made really cheap pens that appealed to a broader
audience, survived the Great Depression more or less intact. It
eventually went on to buy the US parent, and is still in operation
today in the line of... I will say "inexpensive..." pens for
advertising, banks, hotels, and similar.
This example of their work is a little hard to place. The plastic
suggests 1950s, but the filler suggests 1940s. It is very similar
in feel to the middling to upper-end Wearevers
that bridged those decades, and I think it would be safe to assume it's
post-War and pre-Kennedy, and just leave it at that.
One of the things I find endearing about it is the all-transparent
body. One might call it a "demonstrator", although by what I
expect is the time of this pen, no one was particularly dazzled by a button filler. Still, it is kind of
interesting to see how the short press of the button leads to a full
compression of the sac... if you're strange like me. Otherwise
this is a very undistinguished pen, in performance the very embodiment
of "you get what you pay for."
Specifications: Medium point
(likely plated steel, but plated with what I dare not guess).
Button filler. 13.4 cm long capped, 15.5 cm
posted.
Condition: For so cheap a pen, very good indeed. The top
of the cap has some scars-- they're not from teeth, if we think only of
human mouths. There's no loss of plating.
Repairs: Replaced sac, and silicone was used because it's also
transparent and isn't it nice to see how much ink is left?
Reseated pressure bar, which has to be wedged between section and
barrel if it's not to push the section out when the button is pushed.
Location: My collection.
For sale?: No.
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