Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen c. 1960-1961

by Jim Mamoulides, October 30, 2005, updated April 10, 2023

Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen in red c. 1960-1961

Wait, What IS That?

When I'm out pen hunting, I don't usually take home cheapie cartridge pens unless they are Sheaffers. Way too many of the cartridge pens out in the wild are really cheap in every sense of the word, and often have the added bonus of being just plain awful writers. Not only that, but some use cartridges that are no longer available, leaving a person to refill empty cartridges in order to use the pen. Sheaffer paid a lot of attention to the quality of their original cartridge models and by the end of the 1950s, they were outselling, in volume, all the other lines. And, of course, Sheaffer cartridges are still available. I think Sheaffer saw the wave of the future.

When I first saw this pen in the antique store, I thought it was another of the common 1950s Snorkel shaped Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pens, so I grabbed it, intending to add it to the fistful of pens I intended to buy. Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pens have chrome plated metal caps and a large variety of barrel colors. It took a second for me to notice VENUS and a bold V logo stamped on the clip before I realized this was something different. I had not yet seen a Venus pen like this one.

Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen in red c. 1960-1961

I have quite a few 1940s Venus lever-fill pens, made by the same company that made Venus pencils, the American Lead Pencil Company of Hoboken, New Jersey. They are decent second tier pens, nicely made, and can be good writers. The 1940s Venus President was a bargain at the time, with attractive cellloid and a 14 karat gold nib. Even the cheaper hooded nib Venus pens can be good pens. This pen might prove to be interesting.

Pulling the cap off reveals a hooded nib section, unexpected on a pen so similar to the Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pen, though Venus offered fountain pens from the late 1940s with hooded nibs. The nib, though gold colored, is undoubtedly gold plated.

Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen in red c. 1960-1961

Venus advertised this pen as the Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen. It has the same basic dimensions and shape as the Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pen, introduced by Sheaffer in 1955 as the Fineline Cartridge Fountain Pen. Venus packaged it typically on hang cards and included one or more Sheaffer Skrip ink cartridges, with the Sheaffer Skrip product name prominently featured on the packaging. Everything about these pens points to them being made by Sheaffer under contract though I have no proof for this, but I'm pretty confident that is the case here. Why would Venus go to the expense to develop their own pen and cartridge system when they can get one from the largest pen maker in the USA?

Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen in blue on hang card c. 1960-1961

The earliest advertisement found for this pen is by The Book Store on 117-119 N. Phillios Ave in Sioux Falls, Idaho on July 31, 1960, in the local Argus-Leader. Interestingly it offers a reduced to 98 cents price with 3 Sheaffer Skrip cartridges. Pricing for the pen in 1960 and 1961 appears to range from a low of 98 cents to a high of $1.95 depending on the trim level of the pen and how many cartridges are included. This is considerably less than the original $2.95 retail price of the Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pen. Possibly the lower price point was inevitable as there are advertisements as early as January 7, 1960 the offering a student deal on the Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pen that included two five packs of Skrip cartridges and a handwriting booklet all for 98 cents, a discount from $2.95 for the pen and 98 cents for the two cartridge packs. It was like getting the pen and the booklet for free.

The Hooded Nib Patent Mystery

U. S. Patent 2,396,919 awarded March 19, 1946 to David Juelss

A very interesting bullet point appears in one of the early ads, “patented hooded point for instant starting.” A review of Sheaffer patents, since they probably made these pens, does not show anything resembling the very Parker 51 style hooded nib on this pen. Then I thought, that’s not a surprise as Sheaffer probably would not be caught dead putting their name on anything that resembled one of the most iconic pens of their biggest competitor. This is a Venus branded pen and Venus most definitely made and sold hooded nib pens in the 1940s and had four hooded nib patents. It’s no help that the patent number is not stamped on the pen as would be twenty years earlier. Was one of these patents being claimed here? I reviewed all of them and three of them don’t seem to fit with this pen, mostly due to visible design features of the hood such as cutouts and decorative elements. Interestingly the one pen that I have that is still on the original hang card has printed on it, "patented hooded* point for instant starting" and "U. S. PAT. NO. 2,396,916". If you do a patent search on that number, you will find a 1943 patent by George L Guthrie for a "weighing apparatus characterised by the use of elastically-deformable members." Clearly not a hooded nib patent! There is one Venus patent, US Patent 2,396,919, awarded to David Juelss of Brooklyn New York on March 19, 1946, and assigned to the American Lead Pencil Company, that describes and shows a completely enclosed hooded nib and simple feed that may be the referenced patent. It's only one digit off ending with a 9 instead of a 6 so the text on the hang card must be a typo! Venus or perhaps Sheaffer probably wanted to remind any lawyers out there that Venus held hooded nib patents and please go away. I’d really like to see if there is anything in the Sheaffer archives that tell this story!

Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen in red c. 1960-1961

Identification Guide and Features

The Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen is essentially the same size and shape as a 1950s Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pen but has a different cap and a hooded nib section. It’s about 5 1/4 inches long with the cap on. The gold plated nib just peeks from the end of the hooded nib, a similar look to the Parker 51, but there is a much larger, black capped opening underneath.

Advertisements, left, Petoskey News Review August 31, 1961, page 7
and right, Chicago Tribune December 12, 1960, page 27

There is a single dealer advertisement in the August 31, 1961 Petoskey News Review that shows an upscale version of the Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen priced at $1.95 with four cartridges. The copy states that the pen has a "jeweler chased chrome finished metal cap with gold flashed clip." I've never seen an example of this version. The notes below apply to the standard Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen, as this is the only kind I have seen either in person or confirmed examples online or at pen shows.

• Molded plastic barrel in solid colors including black, red, blue, green, grey, and brown
• Barrel color plastic nib section
• Polished chrome plated cap
• Chrome plated clip stamped VENUS and with the Venus V logo
• Cap pulls off
• Hooded section with gold plated stainless steel nib
• Known nib grades are fine and medium
• Cartridge filling system using Sheaffer Skrip cartridges
• About 5 1/4 inches long capped
• Packaged on hang cards
• Several retail price points for the fountain pen and cartridges include $.98, $.99, $1.00, $1.29

Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen in red, cap and hooded nib view

Performance

As with Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pens, filling is as simple as dropping the cartridge in the barrel, screwing the nib section back on the barrel, and starting writing.

Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen in red, hooded nib view

Although similar in design to the Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pen, I find this example of the Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen to have a slightly different and poorer writing quality. The fine nib writes a little dry, and not quite with the Sheaffer character. Perhaps that can be adjusted. Also, the plastic used for the nib section is very prone to ink staining, as this example shows quite clearly. Side by side, I like the way the Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pen writes much better and kept wishing that this pen had a better writing nib. Some reviews online say the pens write better than my example, so your mileage may vary!

Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen in red, open, showing cartridge

I think Sheaffer employees and dealers must have been amused to see a hooded nib pen using Skrip cartridges. I would have been! I also think this would be a very interesting pen in clear plastic, as many Sheaffer Cartridge Pens are, especially with a clear section.

An odd pen that I’d like to know more about the behind the scenes between Venus and Sheaffer. Maybe something will turn up from the Sheaffer archives some day!

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References

Advertisement Argus Leader, July 31, 1960, page 4C

Advertisement Chicago Tribune, December 12, 1960, page 27

Advertisement Greeley Daily Tribune, August 26, 1963, page 2

Advertisement Intelligencer Journal, September 1, 1961, page 23

Advertisement Petoskey News Review, August 31, 1961, page 7

Advertisement Star_Phoenix, September 6, 1955, page 8

Advertisement The Charleston Daily Mail, September 1, 1960, page 31

Advertisement The Daily Tribune, January 14, 1960, page 16

Advertisement The Tribune Sun, October 23, 1960, page 5

United States Patent number 2,396,919 awarded to David Juelss on March 19, 1946

Undated Venus Cartridge Fountain Pen hang card package, Style 60-SJ