Shown here are the three mian clip styles found on Wirt lever fillers. The first "Bold" wirt clip was typically fond on the very large #5 and #6 pens. This clip may also be found on Celluloid Wirt pens.

The middle "Plain" clip was found on the smaller #3 and #4 pens.

The last "ornate" silver plated clip is still a bit of a mystery. George Kovalenko mentioned that the patent date on the clip was issued to James Walter Greenbaum on June 2, 1914. However also on the clip are initials. If you look closely at the logo on the clip, it looks sort of like WHH, or WH-I, or WHi, or even WI-H. A wild guess may be that these clips were ordered from Hicks, but I doubt any of these are consistent with acronyms or initials used by W. S. Hicks or his company. The same clip was used by Wahl Eversharp on their pens and pencils in the late 1920s and early 30s. Perhaps Greenbaum sold licenses to use the patents to both, in the same way that Van Valkenburg did with his clips.

The clip might also have been made by George W. Heath, who had his own unrelated patents for clips, nos. 1,145,583 and 1,145,584.

Recently George Kovalenko sent in this news on these Paul Wirt fountain Pen clips:

The clip also has the date for patent 1,098,719. WHH just might be William H. Hambler, a penmaker listed at 141 Broadway, New York, starting in business around the years 1888-90. That's the only penmaker I have found so far with the initials W.H.H. Augustus Hambler is also listed at 141 Broadway in 1890, perhaps a brother. The WHH company continues with William C. Hambler, possibly a son, at 206 Broadway in the year 1910, and perhaps still in business in 1914.

If anyone can shed some light on this clip, I'd love to hear from you.

rd@kamakurapens.com