Merlins Tower

Esterbrook Fountain Pen – Some History and….

Posted on July 21st, 2006 by Merlin.
Categories: Art, Sketching.

As you may know from a previous post I just purchased several pens via eBay – One of the pens I purchased was Manufactured by Esterbrook.

First I would Like to give you a little history lesson on the Esterbrook Pen Company:

Richard Esterbrook who was a stationer by trade opened a factory at the foot of Cooper Street in Camden NJ (Opens Google Map of Cooper Street Today) in 1856.

First known as the United States Steel Pen Manufacturing Company – Later to be renamed the Esterbrook Steel Pen Manufacturing Company.

It was opened with only 15 workers – 5 of which were taken from a competing pen manufacturer (Corporate Brain Drain was even happening way back in 1856).

At this time there were only 4 pen companies in the United States and 2 of them were located in Camden, NJ. (FYI: C. Howard Hunt Pen Company – at 7th and State Streets was the other Camden Pen Company)

At the pinnacle of the Esterbrooks run – They would have over 450 employees working daily and would produce over 600,000 pen a day) – quite a few pens.

The Esterbrook company did how ever move it operations in 1964 to an industrial park off Rt 70 in Cherry Hill.

Then in November of 1967 Esterbrook merged with Venus Pen Company of New York and then by 1969 the Venus-Esterbrook Phased out the Cherry Hill Operations.

Various Notes of Interest:
The average price of an Esterbrook Pen was Only $1.50 And by using the Relative Value Chart from the EH.Net’s (What’s Is it Relative Value) $1.50 in 1938 would be worth about $20.73 today based on the Consumer Price Index.

Some Users of the Esterbrook:
Carl Barks – Famous Disney Cartoonist who drew for Disney Comic Books for three decades invented Uncle Scrooge among other Disney Characters drew his cartoons with an Esterbrook No. 356 art and drafting pen.

Plus

Everett Peck – Another Cartoonist, and Illustrator and the creator of Duckman draws his cartoons and illustrations with an Esterbrook Fountain Pen with a no. 048 Falcon Nib.

Nib and Pen Info:
This Esterbrook.net Website – Has Scans of the various Instruction Sheets and Nib Chart – Plus they have more details of all the various pens and some pens for sale.

The Vintage Pen Website has another nice Nib Chart Scan showing usage and what the nib would look like.

Tags: Esterbrook Pens, Fountain Pen, Fountain, Pen, Disney, Carl Barks, Everett Peck, Duckman, Nibs, Camden, NJ, New Jersey

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