Eversharp Skyline fountain pen on block at RR Auction.

RR Auction

The Eversharp Pen Company is perhaps best known for – at least among vintage pen aficionados – the creation of its Skyline pen, which it commissioned from industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss [1904 –1972] in 1940. Dreyfuss put his name on the map with such devices as the Western Electric Model 500 telephone, the Westclox Big Ben alarm clock, and the Honeywell round thermostat, and his Skyline was yet another winner. It was inspired by the New York Central 20th Century Limited locomotive, and its modern streamlined shape and sturdy profile made it an icon of the era.

A lot of history

Among its many attributes, the pen was standard-issue for WWII U.S. Navy flyers and even played a political role as the pen used by Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser to sign for Great Britain during the Japanese surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. History buffs and pen lovers take note: This fountain pen is being offered as part of RR Auction’s sale, Fine Autographs and Artifacts Featuring WWII.

This Eversharp Skyline pen features a dark barrel contrasted by a 14-karat gold-filled radial-pattern cap and a 14-karat gold nib. The cap is engraved, “Japanese Surrender 1945.” The lot includes a display stand, a photograph depicting Fraser signing the Instrument of Surrender, and a first edition of Fraser of North Cape by Richard Humble, which alludes to both the pen and Fraser’s correspondence with Winston Churchill. The lot also comprises Fraser’s later Admiral of the Fleet epaulettes by Gieves of London.

Fraser served as Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet during the destruction of the German battleship Scharnhorst in 1943, commanded the British Fleet from 1944 to 1946, and subsequently became First Sea Lord. His signature aboard the USS Missouri represented Great Britain during the formal conclusion of the war in the Pacific.

But there’s more to the story. Apparently the fountain pen was not just casually present at the ceremony. Film footage of the event shows Fraser arriving at the surrender table and uncapping a familiar dark-barreled, gold-capped pen of his own while other American-made desk pens were untouched nearby. Fraser used this model to sign the official Allied copy of the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of King George VI and the United Kingdom. Only after completing his signature did he use one of the table pens for the Japanese copy of the surrender document. This sequence helps establish the Eversharp as Fraser’s personal fountain pen rather than one of the ceremonial signing pens specifically available for the event, some of which were later distributed to attendees.

As a final anecdote, Fraser used the same Eversharp pen on September 5, 1945, to write a personal letter to Winston Churchill. The prime minister responded by secret cable in which he thanked him for his “very kind letter of September 5 on the date and with the pen of the unconditional surrender of Japan,” thus memorializing the writing instrument for generations to come.

The RR Auction sale opened on May 19 and will conclude on June 10.