The Croxley 'Torpedo' fountain pen first appeared at the British Industies Fair in May 1947, one of the first customers being Princess Mary, daughter of King George V, and then the Pricess Royal, who bought a prototype. The pen, named after Croxley Green, was released in april 1948 and Croxley suddenly ceased pen production in mid 1949, so the pen had a very short production run and is consequently quite scarce. It was advertised as 'the only fully streamlined British fountain pen made in celluloid', and commended a hefty price of 30/6, about a quarter of the average weekly wage for a man, at the time.
The pen has been fully restored and is in first class condition. It is finished in a pearlised marbled burgundy and pink with a Gold filled clip, filler lever, and cap band. The lever carries the distinctive Croxley 'arrow' motif.
The surface has a deep, lustrous shine and the Gold filling has held up very well, it is of better quality than the filling on most British pens of that period. The barrel imprint, which identifies the pen as a British made Croxley, is sharp and clear. The streamlined pen only became widely known as the 'Torpedo' some time later in order to distinguish it from the much more common 'straight' version.
The cap is a screw fit, tightening smoothly and securely with one and a half turns. The pen has been fitted with a new ink sac as the original had hardened with age. The nib is 14 Ct. Gold and is marked as 'A Dickinson Product', as were all Croxley nibs. The John Dickinson Company were, and still are, a huge stationary company.
Although the 'mock-croc' box is not a Dickinson product, it came to me with the pen and is of the right time period. Interestingly, the Thames Board Mill company, who made the box, were situated in Warrington, just a short trip down the Mersey from the Croxley pen factory establised in Liverpool in 1947.
The Croxley pen is one of the lesser well known English fountain pens but it was easily on a par with the likes of Conway Stewart in terms of quality, and is now a good deal harder to come by. A 'Torpedo' in such fine condition as this pen is quite rare.