127-129 E 4th
St
Cincinnati Ohio.
John Holland was one of America's premier gold nib makers. He
was born in Ireland in 1839 and came to the US in 1848. He
apprenticed in nib making with George Sheppard in Cincinnati Ohio,
who had been making gold pens since 1841. I couldn't find a
confirmed date for Holland's start with Sheppard, but by 1860 he was
listed as a "gold pen maker". He took control of the company and
changed the name to John Holland Gold Pen Co in 1862. Many
people have written that he started selling fountain pens in the
1860s, but if this is true, there isn't any information about them
to be found. Most of his ads from the 1870s only mention gold nibs
and his other products such as toothpicks and pencils. There were
"pen cases" listed, but I think this was just a reference to his
retractable dip pen holders.
He did begin selling a line of
eyedropper fill pens in the 1880s which turned into a full line of
pens by the 1890s when he went into national advertising. He called
himself a "gold pen maker" up to 1910 when he began describing
himself as a "fountain pen maker". His first self-fillers came
out in 1905 or 1906. I found a catalog listing for the Eureka thumb
filler in an undated catalog, which is either from 1905 or 1906. To
fill the Eureka, you slid the barrel sleeve forward and pushed the
pressure bar. The Eureka is shown with eyedropper fill pens and no
other self fillers. Holland first advertised the pull-filler or
collar filler pen in 1906. On the pull filler, there was a small
metal plate running half-way around the barrel. Inside it connected
to the pressure bar on the opposite side of the bladder. Pulling the
"collar" would pull the pressure bar and squeeze the bladder. This
pen was sold until 1915 and probably much later, although that seems
to be the last advertised date. This pen sold fairly well as
examples still pop up today. His next self filler was a lever
filler that is commonly called the "hatchet" filler by pen
collectors. Holland called this pen a lever filler and it basically
is a lever filler, but it swings out of the relaxed position near
the bottom of the barrel to reveal a wide hump [the hatchet] which
fulcrums toward the front of the pen and pushes the pressure bar in. The
hatchet filler seems to have been placed on the market in 1908 or
1909 and was sold until about 1919.
Holland
had some great overlays available for all of these pens - eyedroppers, pull
fillers and hatchet fillers. Starting in 1920 Holland switched over
to conventional lever fill pens and stayed with that design for the
next 30 years. One unusual
feature on his early screw cap pens was the lack of an inner cap. Holland
used barrel and cap threads which would just bind up to stop the
barrel from threading in too far. You can easily spot these pens by
the very straight section. His very first screw cap pens had the threads on the end of the
section, which screwed into the inner cap, not the normal cap. The
celluloid pens of the 20s and 30s were very much like other
companies except for some minor design features. In the late 30s and
early 40s he sold some pens with mother of pearl inlays on the cap
and barrel. These inlays doubled the selling price of the pen in the
catalogue listings I looked at. That is probably why they aren't too
common today. Holland's last real effort at advertising came in
the early 40s, although they probably were selling some pens locally
for years.
The doors finally closed on Holland in the late 1970s.
Holland sold pens under many
names such as: Clymax, Columbia, Dexter, Jewel , Eureka, Fountagraph,
Paragold, Perfection. They also sold stylographic pens under the names: College, Imperator,
Imperial, M’Kinnon, Premiere, Royal and Victor. |
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