Sheaffer Fountain Pens - History

Sheaffer, is the only of the four big American pen makers from the classic era that survived until today. Founded in 1912 by Walter A. Sheaffer the factory is still based in Iowa, USA. However, ownership over the Sheaffer Fountain Pens has since transfered several times. Along with its innovative design, this company has a rich history, packed of technical first and business achievement.

The beginning of the Sheaffer Fountain Pens

Walter A. Sheaffer was born in 1867 in Bloomfield, Iowa, USA as the son of a local jeweler. He began to work on his own unique fountain pen design in 1907 after being inspired by the advertisement for the Conklin self-filler. By 1912, Sheaffer converted his jewelry shop into a pen factory by taking help from two former associates of the Conklin Company. Establishing his company with a workforce of seven people including his young son Craig, he grew rapidly and employed more than thousand people in the 1950s.

Sheaffer Pen's trademark: Lifetime warranty

The pens of the first couple of decades of the 20th century were rather expensive and the delicately-thin old points were easily bent or sprung, and their nibs were often easily scratched or snapped off altogether. Sheaffer was determined to find a solution to the problem and in 1920 introduced the first Fountain Pen with lifetime warranty. While Sheaffer's fountain pen was more expensive then the ones of the competition, many valued the lifetime warranty over the warranties of companies such as Parker's Duofold Fountain Pen (25 year warranty).

The best known feature of Sheaffer's bestselling fountain pen, the White Dot survived as a hallmark for Sheaffer's higher-line pens and eventually became the corporate trademark. Fascinatingly, the White Dot, which most collectors associate with the Lifetime pen, actually did not begin to appear until later in the 1920s.

Sheaffer's Radite plastic Fountain Pen

After several years of experimentation, Sheaffer introduced in 1924 the Radite Fountain Pen. Made from celluloid resin, the Pen were offered in two colors, solid black and marbled jade green. However. even though Sheaffer's Fountain Pens were the first first nationally-successful plastic pens it was not invented by Sheaffer but rather by Parker and the LeBoeuf Company.

Over the past decades Sheaffer Fountain Pens have become to one of the best known company to produce Fountain Pens and their Models are highly sought-after by collectors.