Amazing Lost Brand - Germany 1930s Beautiful NATIONAL Favorit No. 73 Fountain Pen Blue Crosshatch Marble Celluloid w/ 14K Super Flex B Broad Nib from the "Attic Find" Item ID: VAR-168

NATIONAL Favorit - Blue Marble Crosshatch

Manufacturer/Model: National Germany/Favoite No.73 B
Year of production:  Exact year unknown, estimated mid to late 1930s
Filling system: Piston filling (Original cork replaced with x3 HQ rubber O-rings - silicone greased)
Nib: 14K 585 - B Broad - Marked: "Warranted 14 Ct. 1St Quality" Super Flex melts on paper, writes up to BB/3B, wet and consistent; Original Ebonite feed
Material: Cap & Barrel - cast and bored celluloid. Captop, Grip section Ebonite/Hard Rubber. Piston parts ebonite. Cast and Gold Filled clip and rings
Length (pen closed): 125mm, Posted: Oversized 157mm posed
Condition and information:

*Date this pen published & listed: March 8th 2025
*This is part from the National group pen of the "Attic Find", one of approximately 20 National pens.

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"

National Favorite No. 73 - B: 1930s

If someone were to dig just a little deeper into the German fountain pen manufacturing history in the 1920-1930s, this company would just pop up all over the place in ways none would expect. Company with an amazing history and heritage, and even more amazing supreme quality pens, that seems to have flown under the radar, with at least half of dozen brands, also responsible (very likely) for kickstarting the Rotring brand, possibly even other well known brands at the time.

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.

The company "München Deutsche Füllhalter-werke GmbH" meaning "Munich Germany Fountain Pen Factory" was started in 1906 and manufactured pens under the brand name of Anglo-American, or sometimes shortened to "Anglo Amer". The Anglo-Amer was a very popular brand in the 1910-20. They manufactured pens both in the USA and Germany and these pens can be readily found even today on the market both in the US and Europe. The nibs were very likely manufactured in the US as the best knowhow for the fountain pen nibs was in the US, and very likely in New York or Chicago, but the pens sold both in US and Germany.

But after WWI, the Anglo-American name was not so popular in Germany, quite understandably, so somewhere around 1920 they changed the brand of the pens to "National". Under this name they produced many models, including Favorite, Knirps, Gold, Volenda, Varia Füllschreiber and others. Sometimes we even see these brand names on the pens, without the National brand on them, meaning sometimes a pen model line was associated with a company name, when in fact it was made by National.

While specific details about the company's history and product line are extremely limited, we managed to pull together several sources from inside our company literature and some online and just partially piece together a very complicated history of this company. One thing is sure and very evident however, that National contributed tremendously to the rich tradition of German fountain pen manufacturing during the mid-20th century. Apparently this company made those now famous Rotring Tintenkuli Rapidographs technical drawing pens, and we can even see one on their ad from 1941, The National 550, Tintenschreiber Rapidograph. Later this design was associated and was called Riepe Werke-Rotringen, and later shortened to Rotring, the needle tip pens. Apparently their Rotring brand was sold off and the company dissolved in 1945 after WWII.

From the quality and craftsmanship of the pen, we can see some telltale signs of the manufacturing processes and techniques, also found in other pen brands at the time, and its possible this company made pens for other brands, which we cannot confirm, however the quality is extremely high, on par with Pelikan, Montblanc, Reform, Kaweco or any other German pen maker at the time. One thing is for sure, they were in the epicenter of the German pen industry, in Munich, and very likely collaborated with many companies there. Other pen brand names of this company were Favorit, Volenda, Gold, Juwel, and Knirps, which some of them had either bore the name National and than the pen model such as Favorite or Knirps, or sometimes just the model as a brand, such as Juwel, Gold, Favorite or other.

From piecing all the info we have and some telltale signs such as the nib, we estimate this pen was made somewhere between 1935 and 1939.

The pen here model Favorit No. 73 is made in a beautiful cast celluloid, with the best knowhow and techniques at the time, with an amazing and delicate pattern, one we rarely see executed so beautifully. One of the signatures of the National pen brand is the hexagonal and tapered captop that appears on many of their pens, even on some Anglo-American branded pens. We can see the cast celluloid pattern on the inside of the barrel, which means this is not a sleeve over a transparent celluloid barrel, rather a solid cast celluloid block with this intricate pattern, and later turned and bored to create the barrel of the pen. Same with the cap.

The pen features a unique and beautifully executed piston filling system. We can see many variations of the piston filling system in the 1930s, when Pelikan was holding the patent it acquired from Theodor Kovacs. This piston filing system was so advanced that it changed the industry. So every company from Montblanc, Reform, Kaweco and others, had to have it and had to find creative ways around the patent, but still use the same principle.

In this National pen we see a very thick and "stretched" ebonite spiral similar to the "safety" filling pens from the 1910-20s, however with a double sided guiding pin that sits in-between the barrel and protrudes into the piston rod, so it is a guide and retainer for both the spiral and the piston rod. Simply clever and amazing, fully and smoothly operational to this day. We have only gently lubricated the shaft and it works even smoother than most modern piston systems. The advantage of such a spiral is that it takes only 3-4 turns to lower the piston rod all the way down the barrel and all the way back, so the filling is much faster than on other pens such as Pelikan or Reform from that period.

In the Attic Find there were about two dozen National pens. We assume this was the prime of the company, and we can see these various models offerings at the time. Various models appealing and intended for various users, uses and styles, from large pens, Lady pens, to pocked size pens such as the Knirps, a Kaweco Sport like pen, which National made as early as 1920s in the form of a Safety pen. This tells us the company was very active and vibrant at this time, being able to produce all these models with each required different techniques, materials, nibs, machining and knowhow.

The pen is extremely beautiful, perfectly crafted, everything a premium fountain pen from that time should have, on par or even surpassing many of the famous brands we know of today. We didn't do any major restoration work on it besides gentle polishing and replacing the original cork with x3 o-rings. Some of the National pens from the Find had some ink in them, suggesting that they were either brought back for repair before the store closed, or were test pens. But several pens as the one listed here were basically NOS, never used with completely clean cork and no ink residue in the feed or behind the nib, a telltale sign that the pens were never used.

Each of the National Favorit No. 73 pens is heat steamed on the shaft-turning knob joint with its nib size. Some pens such as this pen here, bear the mark "B" as in Broad (as this pen offered here), some are stamped EF and some F. Interestingly though, in today's standard this B Broad size nib would be actually closer to F Fine, not even M. And we have taken a photo of two nibs side by side from this No.73 the one on the left is B and the one on the right is EF.

All National pens, unlike a good part of the pens in the find, were fitted with their original nibs. Some, such as the 73 model, had 14K nibs, and some had steel nibs. The nib on this pen is absolutely superb as only those old flex nibs can be. What was rated B Broad then, today barely passes for Fine, so the nib with all its flexibility will just dance on the paper and produce some amazing line variations from EF to BB and wider. The ebonite feed can easily support it and feed it with all the ink it requires.

Interestingly though, another aspect that confirms the company roots and collaboration with a US nib maker, is the imprint on the nib, "Warranted 14Ct. 1St. Quality", which was a standard 14K nib imprint for many nibs made in NY and Chicago in 1920 and 1930, found even on Waterman and other brands from USA. This would suggest that the company imported these nibs from the US to Germany in the 1930s, possibly even as late 1930s before WWII.

The pen is ready to be used, perfectly functional as the day it was made. A beautiful masterpiece pen worthy a notable place in the fountain pen history books. We will list at least one of each National pen models from the Find in order to bring back the heritage and history of this company, and contribute to the fountain pen history as much as we can.

Some of our Sources:
https://plumaemocion.com/plumas/1039
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liGvKZMnbA0