Description:

• Name(s): Bank Pen
• Shape: Bank Pen
• Finishes: Nickel, Copper, Black, Gold, Gray, Bronze
• Tip: Pointed
• Prices:
  • 1876 – 55¢ per gross for Gray “Amalgam” and Bronze, 75¢ per gross for copper and tar coated, $1.50 per gross for gold plated
  • 1879 – 55¢ per gross for bronze, 75¢ per gross for tar coated, $1.50 per gross for gold plated
  • 1883 – 60¢ per gross for bronze, 75¢ per gross for tar coated, $1.00 per gross for nickel plated (white), $1.50 per gross for gold plated
  • 1887 – 60¢ per gross for bronze
  • 1918 (Cameron Amberg) – $1.00 per gross for bronze and nickel plated

Comments:

• One of Esterbrook’s most popular pens, second only to the #048 Falcon. A long, beaked pen with a medium tip and semi-flexible.
• “This pen possesses the property of firmness, while its long nibs and large pierce hole make it moderately elastic. Its general acceptance by the writing public has placed it only second in popularity to the Falcon.” (1883)
• “An excellent business pen” (1921)
• When made into a Radio pen (see 914), it was used by Charles Schultz to draw all of the Peanuts comics. This is the same pen, just without that coating. While the 914’s have become more difficult to find and more expensive, #14’s are still possible to find and for lower prices.

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Patents and Trademarks:

• Trademark
• Number: 6,905 
• Reg. Date: 12/17/1878
• First Use:   
• App Date: 12/2/1878 
• Serial #:
• “Bank Pen”

• Trademark 
• Number: 68,789
• Reg. Date: 10/25/1881 
• First Use:  
• App Date: 9/15/1881 
• Serial #:  

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Other Images:

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References:

The existence of this pen is confirmed or surmised by the following:

• Displayed on the 1873 Salesman Sample Card 
• Displayed on the 1874 Salesman Sample Card
• Listed in the 1876 Illustrated Price List of the Esterbrook Steel Pen Company, January 1, 1876; courtesy of The Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware; contributed by Andrew Midkiff
• Included in the 1878 ads in the American Bookseller
• Listed in the 1879 Trade Price List of the Esterbrook Steel Pen Company (The American Stationer, September 4, 1879) (Contributed by Andrew Midkiff)
• Listed in 1883 Esterbrook Catalog
• Listed in the Anderson & Krum price list in the 1887 Publisher’s Trade List
• Listed in the c1890 Esterbrook Pens and What They Will Do
• Listed in the Cameron Amberg & Co Stationery Catalog #85, Chicago, May 1918, p 67 & 68. (Contributed by Andrew Midkiff)
• Listed in the 1918 Announcement to the Trade: Esterbrook Steel Pen Mfg. Co. Standardization of Esterbrook Pens
  • Retained for war-time production
• Listed in the 1921 School Supplies Catalog, J. L. Hammett Co., Cambridge, Mass., and Newark, N. J., Catalog #21, 1921; courtesy of The Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware; contributed by Andrew Midkiff
• Listed in the 1926 Esterbrook Catalog: while I got this from another source, it appears that this pdf may originally be from the collection of the Pen Collectors of America, or from the same source from which they got their scan.
• Listed in the 1938 Esterbrook Pens Catalog
• Listed in the 1941-42 Esterbrook Pen Catalog: from the Pen Collectors of America library of resources.