Esterbrook Publishes an Illustrated Steel-Pen Catalogue

In 1883, we issued an Illustrated Catalogue and Wholesale Price List for the stationery trade under the name Esterbrook Steel Pen Co. The catalogue listed our commercial address at 26 John Street, New York, while identifying the company's manufacturing works in Camden, New Jersey. It described Esterbrook as a manufacturer of steel and metallic pens and penholders and noted that its products were sold through stationery dealers. ©The Esterbrook Project The catalogue documented the breadth of the steel-pen range then in production, presenting numerous numbered designs in different shapes, points and finishes. Prominent on its title page was the No. 048 Falcon Pen, which Esterbrook described as its "Genuine Falcon Pen." The catalogue offered the No. 048 in gray, bronze, copper, gold-plated, white and black finishes. Historical records indicate that the Falcon was already an established Esterbrook design by this time and would remain one of the company's best-known steel nibs. ©The Esterbrook Project The surviving catalogue provides a detailed record of how the business operated in the early 1880s: manufacturing remained centered in Camden, while the John Street office connected the company with the New York stationery trade and its wider dealer network.