National Pen Co. Chicago Original Hand-Painted Art Nouveau Fountain Pen, 14K Flexible Nib, USA c. 1920

Offered for your consideration is this exceedingly rare and beautifully preserved National Pen Company fountain pen from circa 1920, individually hand-painted with an exuberant American Art Nouveau design.

During the years immediately following the First World War, fountain-pen manufacture still depended heavily upon skilled craftsmanship. Barrels and caps were individually turned, while nibs, feeds, trim and other components passed through the hands of specialist craftsmen.

Within this environment there emerged in Chicago an extraordinary specialist art studio devoted not to decorating conventional canvases or ceramics, but to individually hand-painting fine fountain pens.

Its clientele included several important pen manufacturers operating in and around Chicago, among them the National Pen Company, as well as firms including Parker and Grieshaber.

The remarkable pen offered here issued from that very tradition.

This pen belongs to that rare category of objects in which utility and artistic expression become inseparable. Like a piece of wearable art, it was created to be used and enjoyed, yet its individually hand-painted decoration transforms it into a genuine work of applied art.

Against its polished black ebonite ground, vivid red, turquoise and gold forms flow across the surface of the barrel and cap.

The decoration is unmistakably rooted in Art Nouveau: sinuous lines, organic forms and rich colour transform what would otherwise have been a utilitarian writing instrument into a small and highly personal work of art.

This approach belonged to a much broader artistic movement.

At the end of the nineteenth century, as industrially mass-produced objects increasingly entered everyday life, artists and designers sought to preserve the value of individual craftsmanship while simultaneously rejecting the imitation of historical styles.

Art Nouveau responded with a new visual language inspired by nature, movement and flowing organic form. It also deliberately blurred the distinction between the fine and applied arts: architecture, furniture, ceramics, glass, jewellery and everyday functional objects could all become vehicles for artistic expression.

American manifestations of this philosophy included the celebrated work of Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati and Tiffany Studios in New York.

The present fountain pen belongs to that same tradition on an extraordinarily intimate scale: a functional writing instrument transformed through individual hand decoration into an original Art Nouveau object.

The pen features a solid 14K gold Medium nib with a flexible character, allowing significant variation in line width according to writing pressure.

The nib is signed: WARRENTED 14KT U.S.A.

Its responsive character makes the pen particularly appealing not only as a collectible object, but also as an expressive vintage writing instrument.

The pen uses a lever-filling mechanism. Raising the lever compresses the internal ink sac; when the lever is released with the nib immersed in ink, the reservoir fills automatically.

The mechanism has been fully serviced and a fresh rubber ink sac installed. The pen has been tested and is functioning properly.

This exceptional hand-painted National fountain pen remains in remarkable Mint vintage condition.

• Original hand-painted decoration beautifully preserved
• No initials nor personalized engraving
• No cracks or chips
• No other damage
• Original solid 14K gold flexible nib
• Fresh ink sac installed
• Serviced and fully tested

Considering both its age and the inherent vulnerability of individually hand-painted decoration, its excellent state of preservation is particularly noteworthy.

The National Pen Company emerged in Chicago around 1920 and became an important participant in the city’s flourishing fountain-pen industry during the Golden Age of American pen manufacture.

Unlike Parker, Waterman, Sheaffer or Wahl-Eversharp, National did not concentrate its production under one dominant consumer brand. Instead, its pens appeared under numerous different names, some produced as house brands for major retailers including Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward.

As a result, many purchasers were unaware that pens bearing apparently unrelated brand names originated from the same Chicago manufacturer.

Closely intertwined with National was C. E. Barrett, whose pen-manufacturing activities operated from the same Chicago address during the 1920s. Barrett was an important maker of fountain-pen components and supplied parts not only for National but also for other manufacturers.

He was additionally associated with several other strands of Chicago pen-making history, including A.A. Waterman, Century Pen Company and enterprises connected with George Kraker.

National ultimately ceased operations during the 1940s.

Produced during the company’s early years, the present fountain pen represents an especially unusual surviving expression of this fertile period in Chicago pen manufacture. Its individually hand-painted Art Nouveau decoration, flexible 14K gold nib and extraordinary state of preservation elevate it well beyond an ordinary vintage fountain pen: it is simultaneously a writing instrument, an example of American decorative art and a remarkable survivor from the handcrafted era of fountain-pen manufacture.