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| 1929 Very early Pilot Namiki maki-e
Here is a rather historically important Pilot pen. The barrel has Pilot's 1926 patent for Laconite. In the early 1920's Pilot tried experimenting with the hard rubber vulcanization process, trying to find a way to prevent hard rubber from oxidizing and turning a dull brown color when the pens were displayed in store windows. Nothing they did seemed to help. Then Namiki had the idea to dip the pens in urushi lacquer. This worked, but it was terribly messy and wasteful. With more experimenting, they devised a method to place the hard rubber stock on a lathe and while it was turning, felt strips saturated with urushi lacquer were pressed against it. The heat caused by the friction forced the urushi deep inside the porus hard rubber. The method proved successful, and in 1926 Pilot sold more pens than they had in their previous eight years combined. The 14k Gold flex nib has a 1929 date code. This is quite early for maki-e pens. The floral maki-e capband has tiny pieces of abalone shell inlaid in the surface. A very lovely and historically important pen. $1,500
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