DiMola Bros needs inkwell for vintage fountain pen found in Manhattan furniture cleanout
DiMola Bros needs inkwell for vintage fountain pen found in Manhattan furniture cleanout
Vintage inkwell pen found on furniture removal job in Manhattan, New York.
I better get an inkwell fast because these pens sure are something to write home about!
I shouldn’t have been too surprised when I found office supplies on a furniture cleanout of a doctor’s office, but I’m still amazed whenever I find valuable vintage items that people have literally left in the garbage.
I was hired for a furniture cleanout job in Manhattan around 93rd Street and East End Avenue. The doctor, who was in his 70s at the time, decided to retire. He closed the doors to his practice and hired me to get rid of all the junk that was left in his office. He had been there for at least 40 years, giving me plenty to work with when I went to remove the rubbish from his office space.
I found an old-fashioned inkwell pen with a light green base and marble-like design. Nearby, there was an old cardboard prescription box, dated Aug. 24, 1928. Back then, instead of orange prescription bottles like we have today, prescription drugs were sold in cardboard boxes. Inside the box, there were a handful of pen tips. Some were just brass, but others were actually 14-karat gold! It’s funny, because I never realized that pen tips had been made out of gold. You had to be making some serious money to afford a pen like that, especially if you owned an entire box full of gold tips!
14-karat gold pen tip!
A pen with a steel point, which is what I found on this office space cleanout job, was developed in the early 19th century. Pens were not made to carry their own ink until the late 19th century. Based on my research, it seems that the pen I found was developed and used sometime from 1880 to 1900. I can tell because it does not carry its own ink, it has a longer shape, and it has a corrosion-resistant gold point.
On furniture removal job, DiMola Bros rubbish removal crew found inkwell pen with marble green base
I doubt that the doctor wrote with that pen. My guess is that it had belonged to one of his family members, and he kept it. Or perhaps he collected old pens, and this one didn’t make the box of items he took with him when he left his office space. Either way, these gold tips are in good hands now — and it feels write!
DiMola Bros Rubbish Removal
1640 Summerfield St.
Ridgewood, NY 11385
Phone: 718-326-6969
Fax: 718-326-7979
NGDimola@aol.com / http://dimolabros.com
Loved the pen. The pen base looks like some kind of stone right?
[...] I was cleaning out an old storage unit in NYC and found these old desks. Oddly enough, I found one that would have held ink for an inkwell pen, similar to the pen mentioned in an older blog post (“DiMola Bros needs inkwell for vintage fountain pen found in Manhattan furniture cleanout“). [...]