The Esterbrook Pen Company is a former American manufacturing company founded by English immigrant Richard Esterbrook and based in Camden, New Jersey. It was the largest pen manufacturer in the United States, having reached a record of producing 216,000,000 pens a year. The company produced dip pens, then concentrating on fountain pens until it was acquired by Venus Pencils in 1967, ceasing activities in 1971.
Richard Esterbrook, founder
The "Lincoln Pen", packaging, 1866
1866 card featuring the 066 "Falcon Pen"
The Esterbrook Pens Co. plant stood at Cooper Street and Delaware Avenue in Camden, New Jersey, c. 1920
A dip pen is a writing instrument used to apply ink to paper. It usually consists of a metal nib with capillary channels like those of fountain pen nibs, mounted in a handle or holder, often made of wood. Other materials can be used for the holder, including bone, metal and plastic; some pens are made entirely of glass.
Dip pen with holder
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and Princess Alexandra at Gillott's Victoria Works, 1874
1890 advertisement by Perry & Co.
Stands for dip pens and inkwells in the desks of student bench in the historic Chemical Auditorium of Gdańsk University of Technology, 1904