|
Coral Celluloid. The color features an paque red-orange base with orange/yellow
veining/mottling. Used during the late 1920s-early 1930s, most of
the big American pen makers did not offer it. It's a popular color
today with collectors, thanks to its beauty and relative scarcity.
Somewhere along the way I built a focused collection of Coral pens. It
is possible I have too many pen collecting foci.
The pen above is the larger ring-top offered by Wahl-Eversharp in the
late 1920s, this one non Gold Seal. It's not the lady's slender
pen, but a standard diameter critter with 4-size nib, equivalent to the
soldier clip and larger "tulip" clip models, but... well... with
ring instead of clip. I popped it on the website for sale a few
years ago. Clean color and condition, I priced it about 40-50% the cost
of the otherwise identical model with pocket clip. Same great pen, but
ringtops generally are not as highly sought today as clip-pens. It has
remained on the website, never sold, never targeted even for inquiry.
Tragic.
 But, the years passed and I continued to add more and more Coral to my collection, pens
mainly by Wahl, but also by Carter, by Barrett/National (as "Gold
Bond") and even by Eclipse. In general, when I find a collecting
focus, I tend to keep each fresh variant that fits the niche.
So... for real... just two days ago... I was perusing my growing Coral
collection only to realize that I did not have an example of this standard-diameter
Wahl ringtop in my personal collection.
I was binge watching Attack on Titan
(recommended, for those who like SF/Fantasy anime), cleaning up
the website for the next update, reviewing some trays of sales
pens. I said to myself, "Self,
perhaps it is time to take the Coral ringtop out of the sales stock and
just keep it. It fits well in what is becoming a signficant collection
of Coral Celluloid.", and I acted on that suggestion. I
moved the Wahl ringtop to my vintage solid wood Hamilton printers
cabinet, where it joined its fellow Wahl Corals.
You might guess where this is going. Last night (Sept 16, 2018) a
collector emailed me, wanting to buy the pen. it was the first
request since I listed the pen years ago, made just a day after I
had decided not to sell the pen. But, the pen still was showing
on the website, and I no doubt will encounter another again one of
these days. So, I opted to let it go to a new home. It shipped today.
I'm not sure any point of significance rests in this tale, no profound
business lesson to learn, save that coincidence can feel weird.
So, let's take this opportunity to say goodbye to a Wahl short-standard
ringtop, the larger of the two ringtop sizes, a lovely pen done in
Coral Celluloid, one that finally found a new home, the timing a bit
odd. Here is a fresh shot, just done for my photo archives.
|
|
