61 Beekman St.
1911
161 Grand St
1912-1921
42-44 E. Houston St 1922-1929
Chrysler building 1930-1934
New York City
I would like to thank John Roede for his help on the Eclipse Pen
history.
Marx Finstone was born in the Russian part of Poland in 1873 and immigrated to the
US about 1906. He was involved in the pen business
as the president of Finstone Pens in 1912 and the hard rubber business as
the president of the Nu-Septic Rubber Syringe Co in 1916.
In the 1920s he was making lever fill fountain pens
that sold in mail order catalogues and retail stores, among the most
famous being Montgomery Ward.
Besides the Eclipse line of pens, he also sold a mid priced line
called the Marxton and a lower priced line called the Park Row.
The Eclipse luxury line
was the Monroe pen created in 1929 and was operated as a separate company.
Monroe was run in the same building as Eclipse using the Eclipse
staff and even used the same phone number. Monroe
pens are highly prized today because of the art deco styling.
Eclipse pens had a unique clip that was clasped onto a "U" shaped
mount. The ears on the mount were then inserted into 2 slots in the cap.
The inner cap was then pressed into the cap and would bend both of
the ears over and secure the clip. This clip was designed by
David Klein and was manufactured exclusively by Eclipse. The Klein clip was
used on Eclipse and Marxton pens, but the Park Row line had the much
simpler [and cheaper] "Z" style clip. The Klein clips are missing on many
pens. The Klein clips are also used by Eveready, Seberlee and
Charles Keene pens.
Eclipse was an industry leader in the production of celluloid tubes
made from wrapped celluloid sheet. Previously pens had been made
from tubes and rods, but Finstone came up with a method of wrapping
celluloid sheets into tubes and bonding the seam. This would cut
down on the amount of material used and would also cut the time it
took to machine these tubes into finished caps and barrels.
The nibs in Eclipse pens are sometimes signed Eclipse, but most of
the pens have warranted nibs. I have had a lot of Eclipse pens with
warranted nibs, and I believe that some are original. Some of the
original catalogue illustrations show signed nibs right alongside
warranted nibs. I have noticed that many of the warranted nibs also
are marked "NY" and these may be original.
Eclipse liked to mark the lever on their pens, but they didn’t like
to mark the barrels much probably because he didn't know what brand the pen
was going to be sold under until it was finished. Some have Eclipse nibs, others just have
warranted nibs which I believe are correct in some of these pens. The
Eclipse pens have signed levers, but the Marxton and Park Row pens
just had lever with a wreath design. Later they would drop the
Eclipse marking on the lever and make it a design of parallel lines
that looked like the Eclipse logo, but since it didn't really say
anything, they could use this lever on the lower line pens.
Eclipse was big into selling large red pens. Finstone saw what the
Big Red Duofold did to the fountain pen market and wasted no time in
selling a lot of his own Big Red pens. In 1926 he boldly
advertised "We make more red pens than any other manufacturer". That
was a direct jab right at Parker. I don't know if they
actually sold more red pens than Parker, but I would guess that they
sold more oversize pens in mandarin yellow than Parker. The
Eclipse yellow pens actually seem less prone to cracking than
Parker. Did Eclipse actually sell a better product?
Eclipse opened a Canadian branch in 1925 that did their own manufacturing of pens.
This branch actually outlasted the original US company. The
Canadian Eclipse company sold many pens identical to the US
versions, but they also sold a lot of lower priced pens. The
selling of lower priced pens may have helped the Canadian Eclipse
company survive the depression, when the US version didn't.
In 1926 Eclipse opened a new factory in Arlington NJ.
Also in 1926 the Federal Trade Commission charged Eclipse with
fictitious price fixing. They claimed he was placing price
tags on the pens that were much higher than what the pens were
really meant to sell for. This was common practice in the jewelry
business so that retailers could "give you a deal" on the price.
The FTC thought he was trying to swindle buyers. The suit was
dropped within 8 months. Marx Finstone died in 1927 but the
US company carried on into the 1930s.
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