Posted 11 years ago
Tinkerton
(3 items)
I found this silver pen many years ago, and don't know much about it, so maybe you folks here can enlighten me! I think it's sterling, the pen itself is about 6-3/4" long. I think it was made by Gorham--there's a close-up of the hallmark, which is followed by "P1170".
The nib, for what it's worth, is stamped Turner & Harrison, Silver 144 (and another character I can't read), Phila., PA. There's rust where it fit into the pen so I guess it's good I pulled it out to look for "clues!"
It's really quite beautiful, and I would be interested to get an idea who made it, and how long ago. Thanks for looking!
Here's a link to the Gorham sterling marks
http://www.925-1000.com/Gorham_Date_Code.html
So definitely Gorham--would you say made between 1933 and 1941, since there's no date symbol?
It looks like sterling...but is it marked "sterling" or "925" anywhere?
Not that I can see anywhere. It seems like sterling, but no marking to say so.
hmmm, I agree it looks like sterling...did you do a magnet test?
I am willing to bet that if you polished this (which I am not saying you should :)) that a "sterling" or a "925" would show up. Very nice pen!!!
It's definitely non-ferrous, but I took a rouge cloth to it and still don't see anything that says sterling or 925. I googled Gorham sterling dip pens and found some that are quite similar but not quite the same--it does seem to be hand worked, not machine made so I guess no two would be exactly alike. Here's one that seems similar:
http://www.vintagepens.com/morepics.php?id=9943&pics=6
Your piece is most definitely Gorham, the manufacturer Gorham had a silversmith George P Tew, who specialised in silver pens and pencils, he was active in Rhode island around 1860, he moved onto the Philadelphian part of their operation in 1862, and died in 1871, the pen looks like one of his design, but it also has a machine turned look to it which would date it later, hard to say, but if Tew had done the piece his name will be somewhere on the pen, even on the nib, either way it is still valuable as it has a varied field interest with collectors.
Hmm. I took another good look and still don't see any other markings except that what I thought was a P may actually be a B--the chart of Gorham marks linked above says that was the code in 1869, so that might be a clue...it sure looks hand worked to me, there are uneven tool marks but I don't know. Thanks for the input!