The Swan Safety Pen, introduced in1949, is a conventional eyedropper filler, essentially a reincarnation of the Swan safety Screw Cap of 1911. At the time, roughly 50% of fountain pen sales were exported, many to the Middle East and Far East, where rubber ink sacs had a very limited lifespan so the eyedropper was the preferred filling system.
The pen was offered with a plastic cap or with an upgraded adonoised aluminium, 'Azgold' cap, as in this pen. This 'torpedo' shaped version, produced around 1950, is in mint condition throughout and is probably unused and uninked. The metal lip inside the cap which seals onto the section when the cap is tightened shows no staining or other signs of use.
The barrel imprint clearly identifies the pen as an English made pen, this is significant as steel nibbed pens with the same name but of inferior quality were made, under licence, in India well into the 1950s. These pen are stamped with the country of origin.
The pen is finished in a very attractive marbled pink/plum colour with a black end cap and section. The 14 Ct. Gold Swan No.1 firm nib has a medium point.
The box is new, as the pen is virtually unused I thought it should have some protection. It is a high quality box that will also serve well for display and transportation.
The Swan Safety Pen, although around seventy years old, can be seen as a modern version of the first pens to be made with an ink resevoir. Although somewhat fiddly to fill, it holds a huge volume of ink, has no moving parts to deteriorate or break, and is much kinder to the environment than modern filling systems. It is also a very rare, high quality pen.