709 Sixth
Ave 1920-1922
71 Fifth Ave 1923-1927
NYC
Charles Dunnwas listed as a fountain pen manufacturer as far
back as 1910, but I have not been able to find out what line of pen
he was making. In the 1920s Charles Dunn designed a line of high quality pump filler pens in
hard rubber. He died before they ever hit the market in 1921. The pens
were a great success. They were easy to spot with their red or orange filling knob
at the bottom of the barrel. Their "Tattler" line had a
transparent bakelite barrel. They were basically a one pen company, although they offered
different sizes and a ladies pen. They did make a few overlays, but these
are rare. Their models included the Tattler Hummingbird , Camel, and the
Dreadnought. The early Dreadnaught pens were huge oversized models,
but later the name proved to be such a strong selling point that
they began using it as on a whole line of pens regardless of their
size. they offered a 2 piece cap at some point that would
allow you to unscrew the top half of the cap and insert the nib and
section in ink for filling. Today their main drawback [besides
being difficult to fix] is that the red filling knob is usually found
with broken threads where it goes into the pen barrel. Some of their sales
slogans were: "A regular camel for ink, goes a month without a
drink" and "The fountain pen with the red pump handle". Their
pens were difficult to repair and their reluctance to switch over to
colored plastic eventually put them out of business in 1927.
Black pens did not sell well after the Parker Big Red hit the
market. They eventually started selling some celluloid pens, but it
was too late to save the company. |
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