1930s Reform ORIGINAL LUXUS Fountain Pen Chevron "Tiger Eye" Sapphire Blue Celluloid w/ 14K Super Flex F Fine Nib from the "Attic Find"

More Views

Amazing Art Deco 1930s Reform ORIGINAL LUXUS Fountain Pen Chevron "Tiger Eye" Sapphire Blue Celluloid w/ 14K Super Flex F Fine Nib from the "Attic Find" Item ID: REF-079

Amazing Art Deco 1930s Reform ORIGINAL LUXUS Fountain Pen Chevron "Tiger Eye" Sapphire Blue Celluloid w/ 14K Super Flex F Fine Nib from the "Attic Find"

Availability: Out of stock

Sold for:

$676.99

Details

Reform Luxus - Sapphire Blue Chevron

Manufacturer/Model: Reform Germany/Original (Luxus) F Chevron Sapphire Blue
Year of production:  Exact year unknown, estimated mid to late 1930s
Filling system: Piston filling (Original cork replaced with x2 HQ rubber O-rings - silicone greased)
Nib: 14K 585 - F Fine - Super Flex melts on paper, writes up to BB/3B, super wet and consistent; Original Ebonite feed
Material: Cap & Barrel - cast and bored celluloid. Turning Knob & Cap, Grip section Ebonite/Hard Rubber. Piston parts metal. Cast and Gold Filled clip and rings
Length (pen closed): 130mm, Posted: Oversized 167mm posed; Diameter at cap 13.3mm; Diameter at barrel ink window 11.2mm
Condition and information:

*Date this pen published & listed: February 10th 2025
*This is the second Reform pen from this group/type of this "Attic Find" to be listed. The first one being its green sibling: Reform Luxus Jade Green

Context & Provenance:
To read more about the circumstances about how and where this pen was found, please visit our blog page here.
Article: "June 2nd 2021 - The 80 Year Lost, 300+ Pen Attic Find"
This find was also covered in an article by The Pelikan's Perch in the article: "Treasures In The Attic: A Time Capsule Rediscovered"


Reform "Original" Luxus 1930s

When this pen was made, Reform was what Apple was in the 1980, a rebel company, with bold goals, no compromises, one drive only, making the best pens ever made! Several engineers from the then well established pen companies left to found Reform, (mainly from Kaweco), after their bold ideas and passion wouldn't be heard at "IBM", they left and founded Reform. This was the result. 

No matter how many pens we have worked on in the last couple of decades, sometimes, seemingly out of nowhere, a pen appears that simply takes our breath away. This is one of those pens. Having seen pretty much most of what was ever made, either worked on them, saw and felt on pen shows, there are still some pens that even for us, are just breaking the ordinary and making our days at the office more exciting.
 
We couldn't even start to imagine how this amazing deep colorful celluloid chevron pattern was made, we know it must had been made from a laminated pieces of celluloid, similar to a technique widely used at the time, but this is a completely different level as opposed to the tortoise striped versions or sleeved versions as on the Pelikans 100/100N. It is like working in 2D but thinking about finishing the product in 3D. As you can see on the photos, the entire barrel is one part, bored (hallowed from the inside), so the pattern was pre-set as a block, and not rolled sleeves over a celluloid body as Pelikan did at the time, simply next level craftsmanship. Despite that intricate procedure, we have seen on other pens, we have seen this chevron pattern before, what is commonly referred to as "Tiger Eye'' by Montblanc. You can see an example here in the Model 334&1/2. However, having handled that pen and examined it so carefully inside and out, we could just not shake the feeling these two pens were made by the same people, the patterns, the angles, the shades, and separations, they seem to us too similar to have come from two different places. You can also see another example of this Montblanc "Tiger Eye" chevron pattern here: https://www.vintagemontblancpens.com/spanish-chevron-designs. We can only speculate on the circumstances, but we can easily state the observations.
 
This begs the question, were these pens made by Reform or by Montblnac or indeed made separately-independently. Somehow our gut feeling tells us these late 1930s Tiger Eye chevrons were all actually made by Reform and sold to other companies. We might be wrong, but for us there are hints, both in manufacturing details we can see, but also in historical facts and circumstances we are aware of, and we know companies collaborated a lot at this time.
 
At this point it's probably pointless to talk about it's details, the photos say it best, but here are some things to point out why this pen was the Macintosh of it's time:
  • Thick green and blue Sapphire like color celluloid chevron pattern - entire body and cap made out of chevron Tiger Eye pattern - carefully laminated blocks and later turned/rolled on a lathe into a barrel and cap shape. Transparent, vivid colors, unmatched quality, no deformations, very strong build

  • The more stress/force on the spiral and turning knob, means it's probably not a good idea for it to be made by ebonite as it will break, as it was on almost all of the pens from the era. So here we go, Reform made it out of what it seems to us to be a magnesium, zink or other alloy. However it also seems the spiral was cast and not turned on a lathe, as there are a couple of "witness marks" on both ends of the spiral. It is difficult to imagine that someone could make a precise enough mold to cast a metal spiral in the 1930s.

  • This however means a strong connecting part is needed between the turning knob, the piston rod and the barrel - so here again, unlike anyone at the time, this part here is a metal brass as opposed to ebonite.

  • The clip is a masterpiece on its own. When others were struggling to make this part, Reform seems to have cast it flawlessly, and later inlaid their amazingly beautiful logo with blue enamel to match the pen. However the true achievement is that the clip is one piece, including a crown, and a screw which screws it onto the body. This was probably the hardest and most complicated way to make a clip-crown-screw then in one piece, as opposed to almost everything we see from the era, a cast clip, bent with an O-opening, placed over a threaded cap end, and finished with a cap-top piece. What was that saying again - "no part is the best part".

  • Not 1, not 2, but 3 masterfully executed, gentle, elegant, ring inserts around the cap to prevent any cracks. One of the hardest processes in cap band making

  • Besides Kaweco, probably one of the first to implement a capped turning knob in order to prevent accidental turns and ink leakage.
 
And now for the star of the show, the masterpiece nib, since any words won't do it justice, and as you and us know, it's more about the "feel", let's just say, this is not a nib, rather it is a gentle, smooth, paint brush. It is marked "F" on the turning knob, but it will perform F only when it gives the paper the gentlest kiss! Any pressure after that is a true line-art! 
 
Reform always made some of the best nibs we have ever used, and most of us here use Reform pens ourselves. There is no era in the ~6 decades of Reform existence that they haven't made marvelous nibs, up until the end in the late 1980s. And now with this pen, we can see how they started. It is suspended over a very nice, elegantly designed and sloped feed, (we can even recognize an Art Deco design to it), which one could argue, the whole pen is designed in that spirit, but also the feed is polished ebonite not raw as we are used seeing, with a large ink canal to feed this very ink-happy nib.
 
This pen together with the other Reforms in this find, about a dozen or so, was probably made in the late 1930, or possibly very early 1940. This pen has a sibling, nearly identical, but in Jade Green Chevron. The Green one bore the insignia "Luxus", while this one is mared "Original" and we can see both names appear on several same pens. We assume this was a way of name A/B testing at the time, or the fact that the Retailers, the big stores at the time, analogy would the malls of today, had the final say as to how a pen would be called, as sometimes even famous pen brands would put the Stores names/lines on their pens.

As strange as it sounds, this pen is a NOS condition as it hasn't been used, an 80-90 years NOS that is. The pen has not been restored, except for the change of cork with o-rings so we can make it fully functional to a super smooth operating and air-tight piston, i.e. it has been only brought  back to life, lovingly refreshed, cleaned, serviced and praised and admired along each step. As you can probably tell, we consider these pens works of art, we also see most of what we do on them as work of art, so we like to take our time with each and every pen, even if it takes weeks-months or sometimes even years until we are ready to work on any of them. This was amazing - lifetime privilege - for us to be part of this Attic Find.
Warranty

This item is covered by our 1 Year Full International Warranty at no additional cost. The terms of our Warranty are very simple, meant to give you a secure and trouble-free buying experience.

Learn more…

This item is located in Europe and ships Worldwide.

At checkout you can choose between two shipping options:
$12.95 Regular Postal Service, Priority & Registered Airmail - Limited Tracking 1-4 WEEKS Delivery 
$54.95 DHL Express International - Accurate Tracking 1-4 DAYS Delivery Worldwide

Learn more about these shipping options.

Prior shipping our items have to pass our highest quality control inspection, are perfectly cleaned and tested by ProtoPens pen staff after which are carefully packed. If the pen does not come in its original manufacturers box, it is packed in a special ProtoPens case.

RETURS: Returns are accepted. You are welcome to ship the item back to us within 7 days after receiving it in the same condition it was delivered to you and we will issue you a full refund! Learn more...

Be the first to review this product

Ask a question about Amazing Art Deco 1930s Reform ORIGINAL LUXUS Fountain Pen Chevron "Tiger Eye" Sapphire Blue Celluloid w/ 14K Super Flex F Fine Nib from the "Attic Find".
(NOTE: If you don’t receive an email from us soon, please check your email spam folder)

Contact Information

* Required Fields

Write Your Own Review

You're reviewing: Amazing Art Deco 1930s Reform ORIGINAL LUXUS Fountain Pen Chevron "Tiger Eye" Sapphire Blue Celluloid w/ 14K Super Flex F Fine Nib from the "Attic Find"