– When the Walter A. Sheaffer Pen Co. developed the in-house “Skrip” for its own fountain pens in 1922, it labeled it as “Writing Fluid” rather than “Ink.” In a mid-century example of crafty product branding, Sheaffer veered away from the negative association of the word “ink” with the corrosive qualities of that period’s acid/iron inks. The use of aniline dyes enabled it to proclaim itself the “Successor To Ink.”
The Skrip bottle was ingeniously designed with a top well, or ink trough, inside the mouth of its cylindrical barrel. This was claimed to minimize the mess and waste in filling up a pen.
A 1954 advertisement in the Philippine Free Press highlights Skrip’s sterling qualities – faster starting, freer flowing, quick drying – plus a few subtle hyperboles.
While Skrip ads from the 1950s onwards tend to associate the specially designed bottle with the “Snorkel” model, this pen with the extendable syringe-like needle was in fact developed only in 1952. Three years earlier, the “Touchdown Pneumatic Ink Filling System” was invented by Sheaffer, which eventually led to the creation of the “Snorkel,” or fully 30 years after Skrip was first made.Several specimens from the author’s collection show the classic top well design and the early blue-and-yellow colors of the paper label. These bottles were among those made by the Philippine Writing Fluid Co., Inc., and feature a domed metal cap, which became a flat plastic cap in later years.“All pens write better” with Skrip, the ad proclaims. After all, it was “the finest, safest writing fluid in the world!” The bottle label here indicates “22,” which was Sheaffer’s product code for Blue Black ink; however, the box to the left has a “52,” which meant Royal Blue. Interestingly, a local manufacturer called Philippine Writing Fluid Co., Inc. was licensed to produce Skrip in Manila.The base of these locally bottled Skrips are embossed with the “SM” logo familiar to bottle collectors, meaning that the glass containers for Philippine-bottled Skrips were supplied by the San Miguel Bottling Co.American trading firm Atkins, Kroll & Co., Inc., headquartered in the old Ayala Building in Manila, was the exclusive distributor of Skrip during that era. This 1950s advertisement emphasizes 12 available ink colors, as well as a 32-oz bottle, possibly for bulk users.
(featured photo: The two leftmost specimens, with the classic top well feature, but using different bottle designs, were likely produced in the 1990s and 2000s, respectively. The labels in these bottles still indicate “Fort Madison, Iowa,” so they were pre-2008 containers because the Sheaffer plant in Iowa was shut down by its new owners – Societe Bic S.A. of ball pen fame – in 2008. The rightmost specimen is the current cone-shaped bottle but without a top well, which Sheaffer developed after customers complained that the ink trough design required tight capping to prevent leaks, and which made it difficult to open them.)
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