The Crown Pen Here is quite an unusual 1930's Crown Fountain pen in mint condition with the original price band and box. You gotta love the crown price band. I imagine this pen will either be won by a true fountain pen lover or by a WWII historian..perhaps by a person who happens to be both. I have been researching a book on Japanese pens for a long time now, and during my research, I have often found advertisements for the Crown Fountain Pen. It was sold by the Sawai Store Group based in Osaka Japan. In their 1930's advertisements they proudly claimed that Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini owned one of these Crown pens. As the story goes, Japanese minister Matsuoka Yōsuke gave Mussolini a Crown pen when they met at the League of Nations in 1933.Between 1933 and 1941 Matsuoka met with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Pope Pius XII, Chiang Kai-Shek, and he worked closely with Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and Army Minister Hideki Tojo. Matsuoka also had several audiences with Emperor Hirohito. Matsuoka was also director, vice-president, and president of the mammoth South Manchurian Railway Company. He was a career diplomat in the Foreign Ministry, serving as Japan's delegate to the League of Nations in 1933 and rising to the top post of Foreign Minister in 1940. He was a member of the Seiyukai political party. He was formally charged with Class A War Crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East following the Pacific War (his death, from tuberculosis in 1946, probably “saved” him from a death sentence imposed by the Allied tribunal).
Below are a few of the ads that state that the Crown is "Mussolini's Pen"
The pen is made of vulcanized hard rubber which an artist coated with layer upon layer of rich black urushi lacquer. What stands out to me about this pen is the ornate crown logo on the clip, nib and barrel imprint. It is rare to find such an ornate logo on a pen. The only logo that I can think of that comes close is the Caws raven logo. Even if you could care less about the pen's history you will love this pen as a writer.The flexy nib stands out. An ideal pen for a calligrapher or for a person like me who simply likes to play with ornate flourishes.
|
|
