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Sterling pen ~Towle | Sterling Silver Pens2 of 5 |  |  |
Posted 12 months ago
Ollie
(36 items)
This pen belong to my grandmother. I seem to recall that she kept it by her telephone and used the end to "dial" the phone (old type). I haven't been able to find any info on line on it, but may need more information. Anyone know what these were called. The top says " TOWLE STERLING"
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The Towle Silversmiths Company made allsorts of silver items. Their pen is a unique pen made to be used with a rotary dial phone. It is an art deco ball point pen with it's signature telephone dialer end. It is known in the trade as; "The Towle Silver Dialer Pen" and prices are approximately $100 - $150 for a very crisp example.
A bit of Company history:
In 1882, Anthony Francis Towle, while still owning A.F. Towle & Son, established the Towle Manufacturing Co. In 1890, the company adopted the trademark of a large script "T" enclosed by a lion. Richard Dimes, an English silversmith who had immigrated to the U.S. in 1881, started Towle's hollowware line. Richard Dimes, who also worked for the Frank W. Smith Silver Co., would eventually establish his own company, Richard Dimes Co., in Boston. Eventually the company's name was changed to Towle Silversmiths. Over the years, Towle has created numerous sterling silver flatware patterns in the United States: including the "Candlelight" in 1934, the "Marie Louise" in 1939 which became the official sterling silver pattern for U.S. embassies worldwide, "Old Master" in 1942, now considered by some to be the company’s flagship pattern, and the "Contour" in 1950 (designed by Robert J. King, patented by John Van Koert) which was the first American sterling pattern to manifest post-World War II organic modernist design and the only production-line American flatware included in the Museum of Modern Art's Good Design exhibitions. In 1990, Towle Silversmiths was acquired by the holding company Syratech Inc., that also owned Wallace Silversmiths and the International Silver Co. Hope this helps! ;)
Thank-you for all the info....