1949 Sheaffer “Fat” Touchdown Valiant Fountain Pen

Vintage: 1949

Make: Sheaffer

Model: Touchdown Valiant

Color: Black

Materials:  Bakelite C-11, gold-filled trim

Filling System: Touchdown (restored with new sac and o-ring and guaranteed to fill and write as designed). To fill one simply unscrews the blind cap and extends the plunger, submerses the nib, then drives the plunger home in one smooth stroke.

Length: 5 1/4” capped

Nib: Large, two-tone Lifetime conical nib with slightly upturned point in the “Waverly” style to enhance smoothness. That nib lays down a smooth and consistent F line 

Condition:  Gold-filled trim is pristine with no brassing or other notable flaws. Theser is some wear to the rhodium plating on the nib but no brassing to it that reveals the underlying gold. Plastic surface is smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other noteworthy blemishes - scarcely even any microscratches. Manufacturer imprint on barrel is factory deep and fully legible.

Details: In 1949 Sheaffer replaced their Vacuum filling-system with a pneumatic plunger filling system they dubbed the Touchdown. It would come to form the basis for the complicated Snorkel filling system. This full-sized, thick girth model was only available for a year before the more common Thin Model (TM) Touchdown with a smaller nib was introduced. This Touchdown Valiant was a white dot model carrying Sheaffer’s Lifetime guarantee.