In My Collection
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In My Collection
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[ Reference Info Index | Glossary ]
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In 1941 Eversharp introduced a new pen called the Skyline. Designed by Henry Dreyfuss, it was a runaway success, becoming the best selling pen the company ever produced. But shortly after the end of World War II, Eversharp found itself in serious trouble. Its hooded-nib Fifth Evenue, introduced in 1943 to compete with the Parker “51”, was anything but a success, and its unreliable CA ballpoint pen, rushed to market after Milton Reynolds had effectively stolen Eversharp’s thunder with his Rocket ballpoint, was a warranty nightmare. Foundering, desperately needing another Skyline, the company turned again to a professional industrial designer.
This time the nod fell to Raymond Loewy, who had designed the Pennsylvania Railroad’s S-1 steam locomotive (illustrated above), the Electrolux vacuum cleaner, the 1947 Studebaker, and — surprisingly — Eversharp’s poorly received Fifth Avenue fountain pen.
(Revised April 21, 2008)
Loewy came through brilliantly, creating a sleekly minimalist modern design that was unique and, unlike the complicated Skyline, easy to manufacture. The Symphony, as Eversharp named the new pen, appeared in late 1948 at a price of $5.00. Internally the same as the Skyline, featuring Eversharp’s proven breather-tube Magic Feed and superb nibs, the new pen should rightfully have been another runaway success. That it was not as great a hit as its predecessor does not diminish in any way its exceptional writing qualities or its smartly appealing styling.
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This is a Blue Eversharp Symphony (first version). |
It is interesting to contrast Eversharp’s fanciful advertising artwork, as seen above in the circular vignette of the nib and section, with the shape of the actual pen.
Also offered, for $3.75, was a matching pen with a smaller nib. This model, named the Sphere Point, is notable for the unusual convex contour of its section, which has a rounded clutch end with no flare, strongly resembling the section of the contemporaneous Parker VS. The Sphere Point was advertised as being “Platinumized” for longer life and smoother writing.
One of the most distinctive styling features of the Symphony is an asymmetrical metal “slipper” cap that appears almost to have been made from the halves of two caps, one slightly shorter than the other, welded together. The clip, creased along its center and attached at the apex of the cap’s shorter side, matches the overall contour perfectly; if its curve is extended past its anchor, the curve intersects the apex of the cap’s longer half:
Viewed from the side, as shown above, the bright silver-colored slipper cap gives the pen an air almost of a streamlined train or airplane in motion. To further enhance the effect, Loewy designed the cap with no band or other trim except that well-placed gold-filled clip. Ironically, it may have been the modernity of its styling that kept the Symphony from being a great hit. Advanced to the point of edginess, the pen’s looks may simply not have appealed to the buying public.
Too Modern?
Whatever the reason, Eversharp withdrew the original Loewy Symphony after only about a year, replacing it for the 1949 Christmas season with a second version that was restyled to soften the edgy design. The barrel had lost the metal cap threads, and the pronounced step between threads and body had become a tapered transition reminiscent of the contours of the Skyline’s barrel. Although the slipper cap remained, its lip was now rounded, and the clip had slid downward some distance away from the apex of the slipper’s shorter side. This latter change did away with the speedy look that had characterized Loewy’s cap design.
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This illustration shows a green second-generation Deluxe Symphony. |
The second generation marks the appearance of several trim levels distinguished by their cap trim, including a narrow gold cap band (model 701), a broad Autograph-style band that wraps around the cap lip (model 702, the Deluxe, illustrated above), and a gold-filled cap (model 707, the Golden Symphony, illustrated below).
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This black second-generation pen is a Golden Symphony. |
The second version of the Symphony still wasn’t quite it, apparently, and by the time 1951 rolled around, there was a third version. Gone was the slipper cap. The cap shape was as before; but it was now symmetrical, with the clip side having grown to the size of the back side. Gone, too, was the tapered transition between the barrel’s cap threads and its body; that area was now more gently shaped to match the other end of the barrel:
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This is a blue third-generation pen with a narrow gold cap band. |
Also gone was the Symphony name. Eversharp advertising referred to the pen as “this new Eversharp” and concentrated on its writing qualities and its “Flip-Fill” system (with the same lever and breather-tube Magic Feed as before).
Eversharp made a mistake with the third-generation pen by retaining the basic Loewy inner-cap design. To prevent metal-to-metal wear in the threads, Loewy had designed the inner cap to fill the entire length of the cap, with the threads molded into its inside surface. Taking advantage of the built-in alignment mechanism provided by the slipper cap, he had shaped the inner cap’s outside to engage with the step between the two halves of the metal cap to keep the inner cap from turning within the cap. The second-generation Symphony, although it lacked its predecessor’s metal barrel threads, still had the built-in inner-cap alignment mechanism. But the third-generation cap, being symmetrical, has no alignment system, and many of these pens are found today with inner caps that turn freely.
By the time the Symphony appeared, plastics technology had stabilized, and — except for some slight shrinkage of the vinylated inner cap — Symphony plastics do not share the brittleness or the tendency to shrink or discolor that plagued the earlier Skyline.
Turning the Color Wheel Backward?
The Symphony shows an interesting evolution of colors. The colors of the original Loewy version are mostly vibrant and — if one can judge by the color evolution of Parker’s and Sheaffer’s pens from 1949 to 1958 — ahead of their time. But as Eversharp backed away from Loewy’s advanced design, the company also backed away from his bright colors, returning with the second generation to subdued darker tones nearly identical to those of the Skyline.
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| Original Symphony Colors | ||
| Color | Name |
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Black | |
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Blue | |
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Green | |
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Red | |
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Brown | |
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| Second- and Third-Generation Colors | ||
| Color | Name |
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Black | |
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Blue | |
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Green | |
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Burgundy | |
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Brown | |
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The information in this article is as accurate as possible, but you should not take it as absolutely authoritative.
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