Esterbrook Produces Around 400 Pen Varieties

By 1890, our Camden factory was producing approximately 400 varieties of steel pens, a substantial expansion from the ten styles made when the enterprise began. The contemporary Historical and Industrial Review of Camden, N.J. described the works as a large four-storey factory on Cooper Street equipped with specialised machinery and skilled workers. DVRBS The range reflected the increasingly specialised nature of steel-pen manufacture. The 1890 account described points made in sharp, blunt and stub forms, with finished pens available in treatments including grey, silver, bronze, nickel and gold plating. It also recorded roughly 24 manufacturing processes between preparing the steel and packing the finished pens for shipment. DVRBS Our market had also become international. The same 1890 source reported that Esterbrook pens were sold throughout the American continent and in overseas markets, specifically identifying England and Germany among the European countries where they were sold. New York remained the principal distribution centre, while manufacturing continued at the Camden works.