The Roaring 20's

Sheaffers Beautiful Limited Edition

Sheaffer will be 100 years old in 2012, which is only four years away. Sheaffer has stood the test of time against its biggest competitors and has earned the enviable position of being a worldwide household name. Sheaffer writing instruments have wide appeal, from students to sophisticated pen collectors. To date they have introduced approximately 30 different designs or lines, which have included fountain pens, ballpoint pens, rollerball pens and mechanical pencils. The Sheaffer brand was “born” in Fort Maddison, Iowa, USA and is the result of an idea developed by Walter A. Sheaffer to develop a “pen filling” apparatus that utilised a lever system, eliminating the need to use an eyedropper to fill a fountain pen. Inside the barrel was a rubber “sac” that was controlled by using a lever and pressure bar to deflate the ink sac. This invention also removed the need for pen barrels to have the coin-shaped bump on the barrel, which was prevalent in that day. This lever-filling system was patented in 1908, but it was in the backroom of his jewellery store in 1912 with the use of his life savings, that Walter A Sheaffer founded the W.A Sheaffer Company, which at the time had seven employees. Sheaffer as a company continued to experiment with fountain pen filling systems and did in fact introduce in 1952, one of the most complicated filling systems ever designed. Sheaffer pens have become recognisable by the presence of a white dot, which can be found on the clip of each and every pen. The white dot was and still is, used as a symbol of quality. Back when Walter Sheaffer was starting out, he would check the quality of each and every pen and place a white dot on the pens that passed his rigorous testing. Sheaffer fountain pens are also very recognisable by their individual nib designs. Worth mentioning is the Triumph nib which was introduced in 1942 on a new range of pens, also dubbed “the Triumph”. Sheaffer started a journey of innovative and unique nib design culminating in the highly recognisable in-laid nib, which can be found on their more expensive fountain pens such as the Legacy Heritage, Legacy Sterling Silver Collection, the Valor Collection and both their limited edition fountain pens, The Stars of Egypt and the The Roaring 20’s. The in-laid nib was introduced originally with the introduction of the “ Pen for Men” in 1959 and has been used on five other Sheaffer pen lines since then.

Beautifully engraved

Although Sheaffer have been innovative when it has come to the design of their fountain pens and experimenting with nibs, they have only released a small handful of Limited or Special Edition pens and have focussed mainly on pens for the population at large, hence their reputation as a household name. Worth a mention though, is one of their newer Limited Editions, the Roaring 20’s that is made from Sterling Silver and beautifully engraved with detailed images paying tribute to the cultural trends from the 1920’s. The images on the barrel look like a mural and are depicting landmark events, people, places, Art Deco the Charleston, aviation and baseball from this era. This limited edition has been limited to 1,913 writing instruments worldwide of which 1,108 are fountain pens and 805 are rollerballs. The Roaring 20’s fountain pen features the Sheaffer exclusive in-laid nib in palladium-plated 18 carat gold. Each writing instrument is individually numbered and has a certificate of authenticity, a commemorative booklet and is packaged in a beautiful cherry wood gift box making this a unique gift. In the second half of 2008 Sheaffer will be focussing on their popular Gift Collections, re-naming the current Gift collection 1 and Gift collection 2, to the Sheaffer 100 and Sheaffer 300 respectively and introducing a stylish, sleek Sheaffer 500 gift set in time for Christmas. The Sheaffer 500 has extra nickel plating on the cap to enhance engraving capabilities and is available as a ballpoint pen or a ballpoint pen and pencil set only.

Sheaffers Beautiful Limited Edition