C1928 SHEAFFER SENIOR FLATTOP CHERRY RED SERVICE LOANER FOUNTAIN PEN RESTORED

For your consideration, we are offering for sale this Very Rare Restored Circa 1928 Sheaffer Senior Flattop Service/Loaner Fountain Pen in the Cherry Red Celluloid. This fountain pen has been thoroughly taken apart, cleaned, and put back together and now is in wonderful writing condition.

I have ultrasonically cleaned the NIB, feed, and section. Replaced the old rubber sac with a new silicone sac to help preserve the coloring of this Cherry Red celluloid. Hand polished the Gold Filled SHEAFFER Straight Clip, Lever Arm, and 14K UNIVER (Sheaffer Sub-brand) NIB. I also cleaned, buffed, polished, and waxed the barrel and cap to bring back the vibrancy and to protect the celluloid of the fountain pen. The color of this Cherry Red is with gorgeous, vibrant color - no discoloration.

For this Sheaffer being a Loaner/Service fountain pen cap and barrel are in impeccable condition with no chips, cracks, teeth marks with the cap always securing tightly to the barrel. The cap has the Sheaffer straight clip that is original to the cap and pen - there is some wear to the clip where much of the gold fill is washed away from use. The Gold Filled Lever is in excellent condition with no wear or extremely light wear of the gold-filled material. The barrel is clearly stamped with, "SERVICE PEN LOANED BY J.K. FODOR". There are no monograms or personalizations on the cap or barrel. This Sheaffer Senior Flat Top Fountain Pen measures 5 3/8" in length capped and 6 5/8" posted.

I have tested the lever filling mechanism with water and fills as it should. The filling system is working as it should.

This Sheaffer has a #54 UNIVER Nib. UNIVER is/was a sub-brand of the Sheaffer Pen Co. The actual iridium tip on this Sheaffer Nib has a fine point measuring roughly .45mm when measured with digital calipers. When writing a sample with this NIB, it writes with a double extra-fine to a fine line. In the writing sample provided, the double extra-fine line measures at .25mm and will flex to a fine stroke measuring .56mm with medium to firm pressure when I measured with digital calipers. The writing sample was done with the actual pen in the images that are listed for sale. The writing sample was performed by dipping the Nib in Parker Quink Blue Ink. The nib is very rigid and not a wet writer.

NOTE: Sheaffer Collectors frequently struggle to figure out whether a particular pen is factory-original, for better or worse there is no such struggle when it comes to Loaner Pens - since they were not intended to be sold, there's no way to tell no way or the other whether an unusual configuration is "correct". With much variety, one wonders what happened when the customer liked the nib on a Loaner better than what was being repaired or was available on a new pen in the shop.

Sheaffer records indicate that a total of 21,855 Loaners were Shipped between 1928 and 1932, the last year for which such records were available. Sheaffer Loaner Pen enabled dealers to stand out as the service center in the pen dealer's community and was part of Sheaffer's marketing and sales efforts, as a way to build brand and loyalty.

This is an ultra-rare vintage Senior Sheaffer Flat Top Fountain Pen in the Cherry Red Celluloid that would easily grade in very fine to excellent condition. These are clearly very scarce pens and high-cachet on collector lists. Certainly, this one is in great condition that would be a fantastic collector addition to one's writing arsenal collection!