1930s Inpak Self-Inking Fountain Pen - Unusual Filling System

Vintage: 1930s

Make: Inkpak 

Model: Self-Inking Pen

Color: black

Materials: celluloid with Kromite (SS-plated) trim

Filling System: feed-cartridge filler (resacced and ready to write)

Length: 5 5/8” capped

Nib: Kromite Inpak nib lays down a smooth and consistent F line.

Condition: Kromite plated trim is clean aside from a couple pin-sized marks on the cap band below the clip and thinning of the plating on the clip ball. Celluloid surface has a smooth lustrous finish with no deep scratches or other noteworthy blemishes – scarcely even any microscratches. Manufacturer imprint on barrel is factory deep and fully legible. A fascinating piece of FP history and downright rare! 

Details: Founded in the 1930s and based in New York City, Inkpak Mfg. Co, numbers among the greatest One Hit Wonders of vintage pendom. They made a name for themselves in the early 1930s with this ingenuous “Self-Inking” fountain pen, which is of astonishingly high quality. But the design never caught on and sales were a flop, leading the company to reduce its cost and produce a series of poor quality lever-fillers shortly before exiting the fountain pen business entirely. The Inkpak story begins with Frank Furedy's 1932 patent (no. 1,880,128) for a "Self-Inking Fountain Pen (With A Solid Ink Stick In The Feed)," re-issued on Dec 20, 1932 as patent (no. RE 18,702) and assigned to Inkpak Mfg. Co. Quoting from the patent: “The invention is for a fountain pen that manufactures its own ink as it is used from dye cartridge inserted in a chamber in the spoon feed below the nib, by water contained in the sack which feeds through the ink stick as the pen is used.” The result is the pen you see before you. A heavy, solid metal cap on the back of the barrel unscrews to reveal a compartment holding several metal cartridges (or “ink sticks”), each packed with dry ink that lasts for multiple fillings. To fill, one inserts a cartridge into the hole in the bottom of the feed, then fills the pen with water using the lever. The water mixes with the dry ink in the cartridge as the pen is used. There is a notch in each cartridge for easy removal after all the ink is expended. This pen comes with 2 of its original 6 ink cartridges as well as a slip of paper with instructions for ordering more (found rolled up inside the compartment with the ink cartridges). I haven’t tested this pen with a cartridge because it can also be used just like a regular lever filler if you just fill it with ink instead of water. The crown of the cap is tapered like a Morrison's Patriot and it has a deluxe cap band configuration with one wide band that extends to the opening and another thin band above. Elegant clip with pyramidal Inkpak logo at the top.