Earlier this century when Walter A. Sheaffer first toyed with the idea of developing his own fountain pen, calligraphy was very much in vogue. The pen a man used reflected his personality even more than it does today, and an elegant and reliable pen was essential to his image as were the suits he wore. As a result there was a plethora of every kind of fountain pen imaginable on the market and yet so confident was he that his idea was a winner, Walter Sheaffer, at age forty-five and to the horror of his family, decided to gamble his entire life savings on the success of the Sheaffer refillable fountain pen.

Working in the back room of the Ft. Madison jewellery store he had run since leaving his father's jewellery firm, Walter Sheaffer perfected his ingenious invention. By fitting an inflatable rubber sack into the barrel of the pen, ink could be drawn up through the nib, eliminating the need to fill an eyedropper full of ink and then carefully squeeze the contents into the open barrel of the pen, a delicate operation which often ended in disaster for both handwritten letter and tailored suit, not to mention the scribe's personal image.

Walter's first hand-made pens met with such an enthusiastic response from his close friends that he felt assured of the viability of his design and launched himself headlong into his risky enterprise. The first factory devoted to the making of the Sheaffer fountain pen commenced operation in 1912 and his simple design, the world's first practical, lever-filled fountain pen was to revolutionise the entire writing industry.

It was early in the new century and expectations were high that life in the 1900's could only get better. The Model T Ford had given people a new sense of freedom and stylish travel and the distant horizon showed no shadow of the Great War approaching. Businesses were enjoying a new prosperity, due in part to the relatively new phenomenon called Advertising, and success awaited young men of enterprise.

Walter Sheaffer took full advantage of the novelty and new-found power of advertising to build a strong and established image for his fledgling company. One of his advertisements of the time voiced the hopes of the young entrepreneurs:

"He has landed the order. It remains only to be signed. Now - the crucial moment. Does the pen he carries write without hesitation? Bad thing for him if it doesn't write perfectly".

In 1914, Sheaffer became "The pen of BIG BUSINESS" and companies in small country towns clamoured for Sheaffer pens so they would be as up to date as their metropolitan counterparts. Slogans shouting 'Sheaffer's pen puts brains in your hand' (1914); 'Pens that will not leak' (1915); and 'For Uncle Sam's Fighting Boys' (1916), were all successful campaigns for Sheaffer, appealing to a diverse market. It was all there: snobbery, practicality, patriotism and then in 1917, the ultimate claim: 'The world's best pen and pencil'. In the same year, Sheaffer's turnover topped 100,000 pens.

With but a handful of dedicated staff, his son Craig amongst them, Sheaffer continued to forge ahead, steadily building up a reputation for pens of the highest quality. Eventually larger premises were required and despite opening factories in Kansas and New York, Walter kept the company headquarters in Ft. Madison.

By the 1920's the Sheaffer Pen Company, as it was then known, was introducing further innovations such as the plastic pen and pencil which replaced the conventional hard-rubber models which were very fragile. They made inroads into related areas by producing their own brand of ink, the Skrip, which they marketed as better than any other ink then available. By 1924 Sheaffer pens were of such a high level of quality that the company introduced the famous 'White Dot' symbol as a manifestation of their constant striving for perfection.

This confidence was mirrored in the rapid sale of Sheaffer shares when the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1928, following a phenomenal growth in the company's market share from a respectable 3% to an enormous 25% in less than twelve years. Walter Sheaffer's vision for his company to be a leader in the writing industry was becoming a reality and to further bolster its development he set about reorganising the structure of the company.

Part of Walter's plan was to establish a Council of Employees which would work in conjunction with the Sheaffer management team to address any problems relating to the workplace and would create a forum for employees to air any grievances without the risk of being shown promptly to the front door. The relationship worked exceptionally well, largely because Walter himself instigated changes in the company in direct response to worker's suggestions for both improvements to the products and the company's infrastructure. His active role and willingness to accept his employee's advice earned Walter their respect and admiration.

In subsequent years the Sheaffer group was also to introduce an employee profit-sharing scheme. This was to prove invaluable when Sheaffer needed to rally its employees during the Second World War to change the focus of their production. To compensate for the fall in demand for pens and related articles, the cohesiveness of the Sheaffer group allowed them to quickly gear up for manufacturing artillery fuses and bomb components and they operated efficiently throughout the war years.

Just as the war was drawing to a close, Walter, now in his 70's, decided it was time to pass on the control of the firm to his son Craig who quickly instigated a concerted effort to increase the size of their U.S. operations. By exploiting the advances the company had made during the pre-war years and their high profile gained through their government work, Craig introduced new lines such as Sheaffer's first ballpoint pens and the hugely successful Snorkel fountain pen. The company continued its rapid growth and Craig succeeded in his long term plan to launch Sheaffer on the international market before resigning from the firm in 1953 to take on the position of Assistant Secretary of Commerce in Washington.

In the intervening years until the firm was bought by the Swiss investment-banking company Geinor in the mid-1980's, the Sheaffer name became synonymous with quality writing instruments and expanded its product range to include 'Lady Sheaffer', the No Nonsense line which copied the firm's 1915-1918 models, as well as many mainstream lines catering to all price brackets.

The focus at Sheaffer today is on reintroducing the art of calligraphy and an appreciation of the writing qualities of a flawlessly crafted pen by re-releasing the very line of pens on which the company was so successfully founded almost a century ago.

At the forefront of this resurgence of interest in penmanship is the Sheaffer Grand Connoisseur, a metal fountain pen with brass liners and available in three models. At its launch at Harrods in London, the Connoisseur range was completely sold out within 48 hours.

Besides the Grand Connoisseur line, the company has produced a range of exquisite hand-crafted 18 karat cold pens inlaid with precious gems, gems, as well as a solid brass Imperial collection and a range of theme pens such as the Australiana collection featuring a koala emblem.

Managing Director of Sheaffer Pen Australia, Mr. Nick Smith, believes there is an intimate correlation between product development, product quality and customer loyalty. "We are concerned with providing quality writing instruments and constantly improving the products we produce", said Mr. Smith. "In this sense product development is very important to us because people get tired of the same old lines. At the moment there is a ground swell toward writing skills and the art of calligraphy, with schools in particular becoming concerned about the literacy skills of their pupils. The fountain pen is again becoming favoured by more and more people. Even with the advent of computers, the interest in quality writing implements has not diminished. If anything, computers have increased the demand for writing products of a high standard as more and more people realise the importance of fostering basic literacy skills.

"At Sheaffer we are not competing on price but on quality", Mr. Smith said. "The White Dot symbol underlines this. If you want something which is a pride possession, that is pleasant to write with and says something positive about your personality, then Sheaffer offers you these things. A pen, like a watch, can give people a lasting impression of you".

In this sentiment one can sense the continuing influence of Walter A. Sheaffer's desire to create a product of practical and lasting significance, a vision which has been realised over the decades by Sheaffer and is now symbolized by the Sheaffer White Dot, a hallmark befitting a tradition of quality craftsmanship.