Mid-40s/Early-50s pen identification

[RyanM14]

I was going through some old photographs earlier this evening and found one that really intrigued me. It seemed a pretty harmless photo of a man sitting at his desk. Harmless until I noticed a pen sitting on the desk, that is.

Long story short, I'd like to establish what make of pen this is, first and foremost. Because of the poor quality of the photograph (enlarged roughly 2.5x) and the fact it is in black and white, I doubt a positive ID down to the particular model is possible (although, with the people that frequent The Nib, I probably shouldn't be so pessimistic!).

I'm far from an expert, but I think the band around the cap would point to this being a Parker Vacumatic (it would be even better if the clip wasn't facing away from the camera), however there were probably dozens of similar looking pens made back then. It also looks like a matte finish on the barrel as well, judging by how little glare from the camera flash there is - I'm not sure if its indicative of a Parker, given all the Vacumatics I've seen on here have patterns and so on. I just wish this picture would've been in colour.
Ryan

 

[redbike]

I will venture a guess at an Esterbrook J type pen. The pictured pen has what looks like a jewel at the visible end, with a metal band between it and the barrel end, both features of the J's. It also has the cap band that J has. Looking forward to other opinions.

 

[ChefJohnBoy-ardee]

It could have been any number of lever fillers. Just because the picture is from the 50's or 60's doesn't mean the pen isn't his grandfather's first pen from the 20's. Doubtful in this case but still.

 

[Snargle]

I'd say definitely not a Parker Vac...the shape isn't right. It could be an Esterbrook J, but it looks bigger. That could just be perspective, though.

 

[OldSchoolYoungin]

I'd guess that it's some Sheaffer model. It's too large to be an Esterbrook and doesn't look like a Vac, either.

It could be anything, really. There were lots of lesser known companies around that time, too.

 

[RyanM14]

Very well spotted on the lever filling mechanism! For some reason, that never jumped out at me until ChefJohnBoy-ardee mentioned it.

I'll enquire further about the man and see if I can find a clearer photograph, hopefully with the pen being less camera-shy.

 

[RyanM14]

Someone has found another photograph! It looks to me as though it has been colour saturated on Photoshop but I'd be 99.9% sure that the pen is indeed black. This photograph, I am told, was taken in 1949 so that rules out any pen possibility that the pen he was using was made after the 1950s. Hopefully, this is a better indication of the length of the pen, albeit posted, and would provide more clues to those who know their pens far better than I do.

Thank you all for your help thusfar, it has been wonderful! I'll keep searching for more photographs.

Ryan

 

[Snargle]

Wow...either the guy with pen has tiny hands or that's one big honker of a fountain pen. It looks quite large...that definitely rules out Esterbrook J's.