A Gallery of Early Arnold Fountain Pens c. 1935-1939

by Jim Mamoulides, July 18, 2025

Arnold Jumbo fountain pen in cream and black marbled celluloid c. 1935-1939

It started with one pen...

It’s funny how when focusing on a particular pen or pen company for an article I start to notice more of them whenever and wherever I’m searching for pens or reference material. This definitely happened with Arnold, a brand I previously and intentionally overlooked as nothing but junky cheapies until I bought a very attractive cream and black marbled celluloid Arnold Jumbo fountain pen several years ago at the Washington D. C. pen show. It is a really nice large size example in surprisingly good condition that had been serviced and was ready to write.

I put it aside for a few years until 2024 when I started to take notice of similar Arnold pens in more colors with the same design and trim. Gradually I built a small collection of these pointy ended Arnolds with a focus on the larger size models. Soon I was adding the thinner and shorter versions until I arrived at the eleven pens shown here. In spite of many searches, I was only able to find a January 19, 1938 Arnold sales letter headlined “We Present Our First 1938 Value” that discusses or even shows an image of this design. I have not been able to find any other primary information about these pens.

The sales letter is from H. A. Burke, an Assistant Sales Manager at Arnold. It offers the recipient a sample of a new offer, the B41 Extruded Jumbo Pen, with a 14 karat gold plated stainless steel "#6 Durium Point" nib in solid plastic colors, including Red, Blue, Black, Green, and White for $17.20 per gross, or 11.875 cents each. That discovery leads me to believe the solid color Arnold Jumbo pens in this gallery are B41 Extruded Jumbo Pens.

That also leads me to believe that the other pens shown in this article are contemporaries of the B41 Extruded Jumbo Pen and variations in size and features, such as fountain pen / pencil combinations.

Jumbo

Arnold Jumbo fountain pens, left to right, Black Cream Marble, Blue, Black, and Red c. 1935-1939

The four Jumbo fountain pens shown above are wide bodied, about 15mm across the barrel, streamlined with tapered cap and barrel ends topped out to a sharp point. The solid color models are all about 130mm long capped, where the single marbled one is about 135mm. The design for these pens includes a ball end clip with an ‘A’ in a circle stamped on the top face and two slim cap bands. There are definitely other colors, including solid green and white, as well as other marbled celluloids. The solid color pens all have a stainless steel nib stamped DURIUM over 6 and are fully gold plated. The slightly longer marbled pen has a fancier two-tone gold plated stainless steel nib stamped ARNOLD over DURIUM over PETERSBURG over VA.

Arnold Jumbo fountain pen / pencil combinations, left to right, Black Cream Marble, Beige Cream Black Marble, and Red Green Black Marble c. 1935-1939

One variation of the Jumbo is a fountain pen / pencil combination. These are the same barrel width as the fountain pen, and the caps will exchange between them. They are all about 151mm long capped. These combos also have two nib types with the more sharply tapered top Black Cream Marble and Red Green Black Marble pens shown above having a two tone stainless steel nib stamped DURIUM over 6 and the Beige Cream Black Marble pen having a fancier two-tone gold plated stainless steel nib stamped ARNOLD over DURIUM over PETERSBURG over VA. This may be evidence of changes in production over time, but there are no Arnold records to validate that.

Arnold Beige Cream Black Marble Jumbo fountain pen / pencil combination c. 1935-1939

A closer look at the three combos indicates production variations between the Beige Cream Black Marble combo (above) and the other two. First, the cap top taper is wider on the Beige Cream Black Marble combo. That combo has a different design on the pencil end that shows a heat mold process used to create the taper and no black end plug as on the other two. It's clip is placed higher above the cap bands. And finally, it has a different nib.

Slender

Arnold slender fountain pens, left to right, Tan Brown Cream Marble single cap band short, Red Green Black Marble, Tan Brown Cream Marble, and Black Cream Marble c. 1935-1939

A slender version was also made using the same design and it appears as part of the header on the above Arnold letter to retailers. So far, I've found examples of three sizes of these fountain pens. I haven’t yet acquired a slender fountain pen/pencil combination that matches the trim and shape of these pens, but I expect eventually one will turn up.

Arnold Tan Brown Cream Marble short slender fountain pen c. 1935-1939

The longest slender size is about 135mm long capped, the second longest is about 127mm, and the shortest is about 121mm. The two longer pens can exchange caps. The shortest has a single cap band and is also more slender than the longer pens. I've only seen two nib types on these pens. One is a gold plated stainless steel nib stamped ARNOLD over 14K over GOLD PLATE. The other is a warranted 14K gold nib. I'm not certain that the 14K nib is original, but Arnold may have offered them as an option on their pens. Again, I have no company documentation on that either way.

Collecting early Arnolds

Arnold Red Green Black Marble slender fountain pen c. 1935-1939

Let's get the negatives out of the way first. Because Arnolds are not highly sought after nor highly valued, they often show up in parts bins at pen shows, in group auctions on eBay, and in bags of pens at antique stores. More often than not they will be in poor condition. Even in good condition most will at minimum show significant loss of the lightly applied gold plating. With a little digging a few hidden gems can be uncovered, but finding a good one sometimes feels like finding a small garnet at the Lucky Strike Gold Mine roadside attraction where kids pan for gold from a stream. Wow! I found a really nice Arnold!

What surprises me is the really attractive marbled celluloids on many of these early Arnolds. In spite of being cheaply made, the fit and finish on a well preserved pen is actually not that bad. The nibs, if they are in good condition, write pretty well, with a consistently pencil-like feel. Did I mention that even nice ones are pretty cheap?

There are several other early Arnold designs that appear to be from the same period as these pens. Some appear to have a very similar cap and barrel shape with different clips, nibs, and trim. Some come in both Jumbo and slender sizes except the ends are much more circularly rounded and come to a sharp point, and have the same clip and nib, but different cap bands. I haven't found many of those with the range of attractive celluloids as the ones shown here.

The first of these Arnolds I bought, the Jumbo fountain pen in cream and black marbled celluloid shown at the top of this article, was serviced and writes nicely. It has a firm fine nib that writes well and is a good note taker. That pen started me on an unlikely journey looking for other nicely preserved Arnolds of this type.

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PenHero Reference Article

More information on Arnold pens and the company history is in the PenHero article "Early Arnold Fountain Pens c. 1935-1939"

References

“We Present Our First 1938 Value” R. L. Arnold Pen Company, January 19, 1938