This pen is now reserved.
This Mentmore lever filling pen is something of a curiosity in that, although it is clearly stamped as a 'Mentmore Made in England', it carries no model name or number. I believe it to be a so called 'austerity' version of the 'Mentmore Auto-flow' made around 1930 at the time of the Great Depression.
Constructed in black chased hard rubber (BCHR), the pen is in near mint condition. The surface is excellent and the machine turned 'chevron' pattern is as crisp as the day it was made. The pen is of very high quality, the austerity only being in evidence by the use of nickel plated trim. Presumably the company did not envisage the pen becoming a long lived model so refrained from giving it a name but distinguished it by the unusually shaped clip.
No restoration, as such, was needed but the pen has been serviced and fitted with a new ink sac as the original had hardened with age. The lever filling system works well and takes up a good volume of ink.
The nib is 14 Ct. Gold, it writes with a medium line and has flex, offering line variation and adding character to the writing. At 15.6 cm. with the cap posted for use, this is a long, 'chunky' pen with a very solid, well balanced feel.
By the 1930s, hard rubber pens were becoming much less common than the new fangled plastic variety, it may well be that Mentmore took the opportunity to use up the old hard rubber stock during the early years of the depression. This pen shows none of the 'browning' often associated with hard rubber and has fully maintained the sharp patterning, it has probably been kept in the dark and unused for a few decades.
The pen is extremely uncommon and is clearly in collectable condition. It also interesting in that it is a short lived model produced in response to a devastating event in British history.