Waterman Vanguard c. 1960-1967

by Jim Mamoulides, August 3, 2015, updated May 15, 2023

Waterman Vanguard blue c. 1960-1967

A Waterman Made in Italy?

When I first ran across one of these lightweight sold color pens in a cup in an antique store in Maine, I thought they were all plastic Parker 51 knockoffs. The stamping on the clip was so faint I didn't notice it at first, but I did see the "MADE IN ITALY" stamped on the barrel. Looking again and seeing "WATERMANS" stamped lightly down the length of the clip made me wonder even more. Is this a knockoff made in Italy and using the Waterman name?

A lot of searching went into figuring out what I had, now that I have two of them, one black and one blue. It turns out that this is the Waterman Vanguard, a pen offered, at least from the advertisements in Canadian newspapers I could find, from 1960-1967. I found no ads or any mentions of these pens in U. S. publications. I also could not locate any Waterman catalogs, price lists or other company material mentioning them. It doesn't surprise me finding them in Maine as there is a lot of traffic between the U. S. and Canada and certainly things bought in Canada would make their way south.

Waterman Vanguard blue and black, nib section detail, c. 1960-1967

Now that I had them, the two questions that immediately come to mind are what model Waterman model is it and why made in Italy? I posed the questions on several internet forums and got some traction from Giovanni Abrate and Daniel Kirchheimer. Daniel was able to identify the model name and Giovanni noted similarities between the Vanguard and pens made in the early 1960s by Stilus, a pen maker in Settimo Torinese in the Turin, Italy metropolitan area. Giovanni wrote,

"The cap has a strong similarity with that of the Stilus 211 and the barrel looks like the one from the Stilus 311. Stilus in the early 1950s was a Brand owned by the Pagliero company of Settimo Torinese. My guess is that this pen was made by Stilus. This pen was made at a time when Waterman did not have the resources to produce a school pen for the lucrative Italian school market."

Recently I discovered a Stilus 111/C, a nearly identical pen to the Waterman Vanguard except it has round ink view "porthole" windows on the barrel where this pen has the ribbed feature. The Stilus 111 (without the /C) has a traditional open nib, by the way. Given these inputs I concur that the Waterman Vanguard is a rebranded Stilus pen, probably based on the 111/C. Since it is not exactly like any of the Stilus pens I was able to review, I believe it was made to a Waterman specification.

Identification Guide and Features

Waterman Vanguard blue and black c. 1960-1967

The only direct information I could find on the Waterman Vanguard is Canadian newspaper retailer advertisements and photos of the pens in their original packaging. I have not as yet seen any Waterman primary source information such as catalog, price list, company advertisements or packaging materials that can shed more light on the pens. The newspaper advertisements range from December 6, 1960, to November 6, 1967. One from the Ottawa Citizen on August 28, 1967, has an image that matches the pens I have, so I can confirm the pen with the name. An ad in the September 22, 1960, Daily Nugget says the $1.95 pen comes in seven colors. Several ads state that the pen came with 4 cartridges. I’ve seen a few photos of the pen in the original packaging, a paperboard box with a clear plastic cover and the Vanguard name printed on the side next to the Waterman's logo. Later ads in Canada show these pens variously discounted down to 97 cents Canadian by 1967.

• Injection molded plastic cap and barrel
• Seven colors including black and blue, no other color names are confirmed at this time
• Barrel has 1 inch molded-in ribbing near the section
• Barrel stamped "MADE IN ITALY"
• Gold plated clip, cap band and barrel end trim band
• Clip has "WATERMANS" stamped down the face
• Cap pulls off
• Gold plated hooded nib
• Unknown number of nib grades: fine and extra fine observed
• Cartridge filling system, compatible with Waterman C/F converter
• About 5 1/8 inches long capped and 5 1/2 inches posted
• Advertised retail price in 1960 was $1.95
• Packaged in white paperboard box with clear plastic cover, along with 4 cartridges

Snippet from Simpson's ad in the Montreal Star, September 2, 1964, illustrating gift box

Performance

For an inexpensive school pen the Waterman Vanguard has a lot of visual appeal. Accented with gold plated treats like a ribbed cap band and a trim band on the barrel end. The molded ribbing at the top of the barrel near the section is an especially nice touch - literally. The clip is long and tapered and fits well with the pen's design. Everything about the fit and finish is done well. All parts fit perfectly, and all the trim pieces are tight. Those are the high points: the first impression is the Vanguard looks great for an inexpensive school pen.

In the hand, the pen gives quite a different impression. First, this is a very light pen. It's only .3 ounces empty and .5 ounces with a cartridge or converter installed. The plastic does not appear to be brittle or prone to warping as plagues other fifty year old plastic pens, but the cap and barrel are really thin walled. I would worry about putting too much pressure on the clip as for fear of cracking the cap. The gold plated trim must have looked very bright and sharp when new, but based on these examples, the plating is thin and cheap and does not wear well. The "WATERMANS" stamping on the clip face is rather light and in simple block letters. I actually think this particular point is a tell that the pen was outsourced.

Waterman Vanguard black shown with squeeze converter c. 1960-1967

The Vanguard is a slender and very light pen in the hand. I prefer filling it with the Waterman C/F squeeze converter, which happened to be already in one of the pens when purchased. From the advertising and packaging I’ve seen, there is no mention that these pens were sold with converters. Opening the pen reveals that the section thread is made of clear plastic, though this does not provide an external ink view feature for this pen. That clear plastic may be a leftover if the pen started life as a Stilus 111/C which has ink view portholes in the section. A couple of quick squeezes on the converter and the pen is ready to write. The nibs on these two pens are extra fine and fine and are dry writers. Each will need a little tweaking to write well. They are reasonably smooth, but not pleasantly so. One advertisement says the nib is iridium tipped and examined under a loupe that appears to be true. To me, this pen feels better with the cap posted, and it posts quite deeply and securely. With some nib flow adjustment, and a little bit of smoothing, these could actually be decent everyday note taking or school pens.

The Waterman Vanguard may not have been sold in the US market. I have only found evidence of advertisements in Canadian newspapers. They appear to have been sold from about 1960-1967 and offered as a low price school pen, but with nice packaging. Even with that long a sales run, I've only found them a couple of times, both in antique stores in Maine. So far, I've only seen this pen in black and blue, even in the very few internet photos I've found. I would imagine that given seven colors there is likely a burgundy, red, green color pen as well, though I have nothing to back that up. This is another interesting find and at least some of the mystery is solved for now!

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Acknowledgement

Thanks to Giovanni Abrate for his help in identifying the probable Italian manufacturer and design source for the Waterman Vanguard. Thanks to Daniel Kirchheimer for identifying it as a Waterman Vanguard.

References

Advertisement, Ottawa Citizen, August 28, 1967, page 42

Advertisement, The Brandon Sun, February 10, 1964, page 12

Advertisement, The Brandon Sun, March 30, 1964, page 16

Advertisement, The Brandon Sun, May 1, 1967, page 14

Advertisement, The Brandon Sun, October 19, 1964, page 16

Advertisement, The Brandon Sun, November 6, 1967, page 12W

Advertisement, The Brandon Sun, December 18, 1964, page 16

Advertisement, The Chilliwack Progress, December 6, 1960, page 4

Advertisement, The Daily Nugget, September 22, 1960, page 11

Advertisement, The Montreal Star, September 2, 1964, page 9

"My Old Drawer," [Waterman] made in Italy "Vanguard" (c.1960s)

"The Pens of Settimo Torinese," by Giovanni Abrate, Pentrace, © 2014