In My Collection
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In My Collection
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[ Reference Info Index | Glossary ]
Most collectors are drawn to oversize pens. But very big pens constituted a relatively small fraction of the total pen market in the first half of the 20th century; on the contrary, many more “undersize” pens were sold than oversize. These small pens included vest-pocket pens, ringtop ladies’ models, and very small novelty pens such as the Peter Pan and the Wahl Bantam.
(Revised March 2, 2008)
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This Red Brown Swirl Bantam sports a semiflexible 14K nib. |
The Bantam appeared in the early 1930s, probably about 1933, and lasted until 1940. Unlike most other models in its size class (about 33/4" capped and 4½" posted), it was not merely a third-tier novelty pen. Made by one of America’s Big Four (first-tier) pen companies and imprinted MADE IN U.S.A. BY THE MAKERS OF EVERSHARP, it was a relatively high-quality pen, offered in a range of models and made to last and to be used in daily service. Wahl-Eversharp even described it in the company’s literature as THE BIG LITTLE PEN. There were pocket Bantams with clips, desk-model Bantams with tapers, and Bantam mechanical pencils to match the pens. Wahl even produced the Bantam in a faceted version, in essence a Doric in miniature.
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This Burgundy Marbled Bantam desk pen is faceted, making it
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Since it was a “real” pen, the Bantam was in most instances fitted with a “real” nib, an iridium-tipped 14K WAHL-imprint nib in the smallest size, No. 0. Many of these nibs even exhibit varying degrees of flex, and they can be remarkably good writers. But the early 1930s, with the Great Depression at its worst, were hard times, and not all Bantam buyers were able to afford even a small, moderately priced pen with a gold nib. Thus, Wahl also made Bantams with gold-plated untipped steel nibs that do not bear the WAHL imprint. Here are gold and steel Bantam nibs:
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The gold Bantam nib (left) bears the WAHL name; the steel nib says only 0 and MADE IN U.S.A. |
Among the more interesting and desirable Bantams are those that were imprinted to commemorate the Chicago Century of Progress exhibition in 1933 and ’34:
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This Century of Progress Bantam pen was lent by Gerald Berg. |
Although there exist lever-filling pens as small as the Bantam, the impracticality of such a design was not lost on Wahl’s engineers, and the Bantam was designed as a bulb filler:
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The bulb was originally secured by a swaged aluminum ferrule. Most restored
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To fill a bulb filler, you squeeze the bulb several times; each squeeze expels air through the pen’s breather tube, and releasing the bulb allows ink to flow into the pen. Because the barrel is the ink reservoir, a bulb filler has a surprisingly large ink capacity for its size, much greater than would be possible with a lever filler or any other design using a pressure bar and a sac. This simple system is also very reliable and inexpensive to manufacture; it requires no spring, pressure bar, or other extraneous parts. Other companies that sold bulb-filling pens included Cartier and Postal, while the Parker Vacumatic and Waterman’s Ink-Vue use the same basic system but with added complexity and cost.
If the Bantam has a serious weak point, that deficiency is the plating, especially on the steel clip. The thin gold plating, more like that on a third-tier pen than one of the first tier, wears quickly and exposes the underlying base metal to corrosion. Despite their relatively low value in today’s market, Bantams that are otherwise in very good condition may justify the cost of replating; the work, if done properly, yields a remarkably attractive and unusual pen:
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The clip and cap band on this Blue Swirl Bantam have been replated. |
Bantams offer the collector an excellent way to build a varied collection; they were produced in a remarkable variety of colors and patterns that drew from Wahl’s full range of celluloids. Some Bantams, like the Vacumatic and Ink-Vue, have barrels that are partially transparent, with the Barber-Pole Striated pattern shown in the color table below or a reticulated (web) pattern as in the pen shown here:
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This image is illuminated to highlight the transparent barrel. The dark
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In addition to the variety of celluloids, Bantams also exist in versions with single, double, and triple cap bands. The pens on this page illustrate single- and double-banded varieties.
The following table shows a representative sampling of the colors and patterns that were produced. This is by no means a complete list, and I welcome documentation for additional variations.
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| Colors of the Bantam | ||
| Color | Name |
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Black |
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Burgundy Marbled |
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Red Brown Barber-Pole Striated |
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Red Brown Swirl |
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Silver Veined Amber Marbled |
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Green Marbled |
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Green Barber-Pole Striated |
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Dark Green Swirl |
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Light Green Swirl (Cathay) |
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Red Veined Green Marbled |
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Blue Swirl |
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Gray Barber-Pole Striated |
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Red Veined Gray Marbled |
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I am very grateful to Greg McKinney, who lent me a potful of Bantams to photograph for additions to the color-chip palette shown here, and to Daniel Kirchheimer, who provided some of the more esoteric information.
The information in this article is as accurate as possible, but you should not take it as absolutely authoritative.
[ Reference Info Index | Glossary ]
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