c.1938-9 WASP Vacuum Birdseye Fountain Pen and Mechanical Pencil Set - FLEX

Vintage: c.1938-9 

Make: WASP (W. A. Sheaffer Pen)

Model:  Vacuum

Materials: celluloid with nickel-plated trim

Color: Gray Birdseye ("Screaming Souls")

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

Length: FP measures 5 1/16” capped

Nib: FLEXIBLE 12k two-tone Vacuum nib lays down a smooth and consistent XF line that widens to a 3B+ (approx 1.8mm) under moderate pressure

Condition: FP is near mint, MP is excellent. The FP is the cleanest example I could find in 20 years of collecting – like something recovered from a time capsule. But I acquired the FP and MP separately and the MP has the later, WASP Clipper barrel imprint. The color of the FP is pristine with no discoloration while the pencil has discolored to the slightly warmer hue of grey that’s far more typical to see for this color. Nickel-plated trim of the FP is virtually immaculate with no brassing or other notable flaws apart from some scratches on the center of the lever. Trim on MP shows no brassing but does have some scratching to the clip. Celluloid surfaces are smooth and lustrous with no deep scratches or other notable flaws. Manufacture imprint on FP barrel is factory deep and fully legible. MP is fully functional, propelling, retracting, and gripping lead as designed when the nose cone is turned.

Details: WASP (Walter A. Sheaffer Pen) was a 1930s Sheaffer sub-brand. The name is often used as a catch-all term for contemporaneous Sheaffer sub-brands bearing different imprints but virtually identical in other respects: e.g. Vacuum, Vacuum-fil, etc. Despite the name, most of these pens were lever fillers, rebranded to capitalize on the popularity of Parker’s Vacumatic. Sheaffer used WASP pens as a canvas for experimental designs and color patterns, many of which never appeared in their main line of pens. For this reason, these pens have gained quite a following among collectors.

Birdseye was a scarcer pattern of WASPs Where Sheaffer saw knots in planed wood, collectors stared into the voids and the voids stared back. Trypophobes beware, so evocative is this pattern of nebulous masses swirling round and being swallowed up by apertures of impenetrable dark that it was at one point rechristened “Screaming Souls in Purgatory.” This example in grey boasts more numerous screaming souls than usual, but the pencil boasts even more. All complemented by nickel-plated trim with early flat-ball clips. FP is imprinted “Vacuum” on the barrel while MP is imprinted "Clipper."