Lang Pen Co

of Hope Street, Liverpool, 1. Telephone: Liverpool, Royal 1065. Cables: "Faultless, Liverpool". Sales Office: 53 Brewer Street, Piccadilly Circus, London, W1.

• 1870s Samuel Wade was a stationer and fancy goods agent in the 1870s/80s in London.

• c 1880 He started making steel pens.

• By the late 1890s he lived in Liverpool and had retired from day to day work. At about that time, he made a trip to New York to pick up samples, including samples of new pens.

• 1899 Some of his sons (including Samuel Frank) set up a limited company - The Lang Company. Other sons included Osmond, Ernest and Leslie who were also involved in the business from time to time.

• From 1904, the company operated from 13 Hope Street in Liverpool.

• 1907 It was put into liquidation. In February of that year, a new company - The Lang Pen Company - was set up with several of the same managers and shareholders as in the previous company, plus several new ones. This company also operated from the Hope Street address.

• 1914 Pen manufacturers. Specialities: fountain and stylographic pens and gold nibs. Employees 400 to 500.

• In 1915, that business was put into liquidation and a new company - with the same name - was established in the same year, still operating from Hope Street.

• 1929 Patent - Improvements in or relating to fountain or reservoir pens.

• WWII. During World War II, The Lang Pen Company made radiators in Ruthin, Denbighshire and Abergavenny, in south Wales.

• The business continued until the 1940/50s. There was a sister company, Amalgamated Gold Pen Makers that seems to have traded in gold for nibs, supplying all the pen makers in the UK (except Parker); it possibly helped keep The Lang Pen Company afloat during its troubled times.

• The advent of the ball point pen caused problems and lead to the ultimate demise of pen making by the company although some efforts were made to make ball point pens in the late 1940s.

• 1947 Patent - Improvements in and relating to sac self-filling fountain pens.

• 1947 Listed Exhibitor - British Industries Fair. Trade Makers of fountain pens and Propelling Pencils. Selling Organisations and Associated Companies include Summit Pens Limited and Lang (Distributors) Limited. (Olympia, 1st Floor, Stand No. H.2144)