The First Lady Sheaffer With A Clip c. 1959–1960

by Jim Mamoulides, March 7, 2023

Lady Sheaffer Tweed Variation With Clip c. 1959-1960

I'll Have A Clip With That!

Right away this pen stands out from any display of Lady Sheaffer pens because it has a clip! Without the clip, it would be another uncatalogued Tweed design in gold-plated wave. This pattern and finish combination does not appear on any other uncatalogued Lady Sheaffer that I am aware of, nor do any have a clip. As far as I know, this may be a unique pen.

As there is no reference for this model in the Sheaffer catalogs, price lists, advertisements, or Sheaffer’s Reviews that I have access to and I know of no other examples, I’m going to have to speculate here. With the 1959 introduction of the PFM or Pen For Men, Sheaffer marketed its highest line pens as specific lines for men and women. The clipless Lady Sheaffer, with its cloth holder, was clearly made to be a ladies’ purse pen and fashion accessory. It makes sense that Sheaffer would experiment with a clip version of the Lady Sheaffer, and later catalogued Lady Sheaffer models, beginning with the 1967 Stylist type models, all have clips. Women certainly purchased pens with a clip, and it seems reasonable to me that this clip version was created as a “what if” Lady Sheaffer model as opposed to a men’s version.

The original Lady Sheaffer Tweed (model I) has parallel etched wave lines, with gold fill on the silver-toned (chrome plate) cap and barrel, a Mandarin Red nib section, and palladium silver nib. For comparison, below are the three similar Tweed variants. From top: Original Lady Sheaffer I Tweed; uncatalogued variant with etched double-parallel, gold-fill wave lines on a Jet enamel-finish cap and barrel, with a Jet nib section and palladium silver nib; and the uncatalogued clip version with etched parallel wave lines on a gold plated finish cap and barrel, with a Mandarin Red nib section and gold nib. Its fit and finish are quite good, though the gold plating looks very worn.

Lady Sheaffer I Tweed

Lady Sheaffer Uncatalogued Tweed Variation Jet black

Lady Sheaffer Tweed Variation With Clip c. 1959-1960

Identification Guide and Features

This pen does not appear in any Sheaffer catalog, pricelist, advertisement or any other company documents I am aware of. Sheaffer's model shop definitely made prototypes of potential models and this may be one as I have never seen another like it. The following pertains to this example.

• Gold filled or plated metal cap and barrel engraved with parallel wave lines
• Mandarin Red plastic nib section
• Cap pulls off
• Unknown number of nib grades as not known if they were actually produced, but could potentially be fitted with medium, fine, shorthand, and extra-fine
• Gold nib
• “SHEAFFER'S” stamped on the clip
• Cartridge filling system
• About 5 3/8 inches long capped

Performance

This is a unique example as far as I know so I did not ink or dip test it. Since it’s the same size and shape as the first line of clipless Lady Sheaffer pens, I made a writing test using one of those with a gold nib instead of this one. Early Lady Sheaffer Skripserts are cartridge pens and fill by unscrewing the section from the barrel, dropping a cartridge into the barrel, and screwing the pen back together, which punctures the cartridge and starts ink flow. The conical gold nib is firm and writes an even line with a pencil like feel, as with any other Lady Sheaffer from that era.

Clipless double diamond Touchdown Lady Sheaffer and tweed pattern with clip pen

Visually it’s a striking pen with a more deeply engraved Tweed wave pattern. The clip adds to the bold look of the pen, which looks well made, with everything fitting tightly together, only suffering from significant plating loss on the cap and barrel. I could envision this being a production model.

There are a number of interesting uncatalogued Lady Sheaffer pens and this one stands out because of the clip. Based on available Sheaffer information it appears that it was never put into production, at least in any quantity, and therefore adds to a growing number of interesting off-catalog and collectible Sheaffer pens.

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Acknowledgement

Many thanks to Patrick Mohan for loaning pens and for additional information on Lady Sheaffers. Patrick accumulated many examples through his collecting efforts and purchase of a few collections over the years. Most of the uncatalogued pieces were from a collection purchased from the late Dick Johnson, an early and long-time collector of Lady Sheaffers. Some of the uncatalogued pieces were acquired from Dan Reppert, who had access to them as the factory sold off non-production pieces.

Pennant Spring 2022

A version of this story appeared in the spring 2022 Pennant, the magazine of the Pen Collectors of America (PCA). You can learn more about joining the PCA and subscribing to the Pennant by clicking the link.

References

“Competition Moves In…Other Firms Introduce Women’s Pens” Sheaffer’s Review, January 1959, p. 8

“High Fashion Comes to the Pen Industry” Sheaffer’s Review, March–April 1958, pp. 5–6

Lady Sheaffer Catalog, 1959

“Marketing Review… Retail and Popular Price Divisions Prepare Massive Fall Promotions” Sheaffer’s Review, August 1960

Plewa, Fred, “New Lady Sheaffer” Pen World, V. 7 no. 6, August 1994, pp. 24–25

“A Report on Lady Sheaffer… Launching of New Pens is Highly Successful” Sheaffer’s Review, May 1958, p. 8

Sheaffer Catalog, 1963

Sheaffer’s Service Manual, 1962