In the mail yesterday: as has been pointed out in earlier posts around the pencil universe, this rarity is a MARQUISE 703 “Radar” porte-mine. New in the (previously) unopened box with paperwork and 2 mm lead so old it would not advamce per its repeater action ( oozing clay, I suspect). In any case now all “click-y”. Also marked “bis” for “encore” or “again”, as in “repeater”. All aluminum with (classic Euro) a pointer in the cap. No way to examine the works as they were jambed into the barrel with no way to disassemble it…just pray, I guess. Made pre- WW2, probably late '30’s. ( Marquise puportedly ceased as its orignal entity in 1945). The box indicates the full range of Marquise writing tools of the era, of which I long to see the 702 and 708 in the flesh ( who knew). My 2 centimes worth…
Out of curiosity… Is this a piece you would recommend just to strike an item on a bucket list, or is this an actually valuable piece in terms of general quality, pleasantness, and balance?
I am trying to explore a bit more the French world lately, and I am getting very confusing feelings: Baignol & Farjon? Super-interesting metal lead-holders, definitely worthy of the effort to trace them and possibly buying them at the right price. Conté–Gilbert–Blanzy–Poure Criteriums? Mixed feelings all way round, with peaks of excellence (2520, 2401) and fun (2113, 2313) counter-balanced by weird surprises (a 2611 piece I recently got has the whole internals popping out of the back of the barrel every time a piece of lead is not secured by the mouth gripping flanges — the latter act as a very poor-man’s locking mechanism preventing the inner tube from slipping away).
Where would you place this 703 on the scale?
Not really a “bucket-lister” item, IMO, rather a very interesting sideroad in early repeater developnent. The “take it apart” part of me is left out of the fun, but that is not enough to keep it off. Not to run it down in the least as what I think is a pretty cool pencil ( except the clip is crap…has about one flex in it before breaking, oh well..). Overall, the French makers, as you noted, have some pretty nice efforts. Some are a bit fussy, the French answer to German directness (CRITERIUM 2510 comes to mind), they tend to be pretty well made ( exceptions, of course) and occaisionally surprise, like this one (703) or the SESAME “Tecnic” 824 or JIF “Meca”.
Way too much fun…write on..
Thank you for the always insightful and inspiring remarks. I second that the clips on most of the old French lineups do not live up to the standards of the barrels and clutches, but since the pocket clips are the very first thing to fly away when I pick a new leadholder or mechanical pencil, this is the smallest issue for me.
Maybe this 703 deserves some more efforts; I still would prefer a round barrel, such as in the Criterium 2513, or that smaller round one you have and I cannot recall the model number of right now.
To add to the discussion ( confusion?), there is this from MARQUISE…clearly an earlier version of the typical all-aluminum example we see quite often. Aside from the 'Huh" of the overall pemcil, there is the sneaky little word “bis” on it. Clearly not a repeater… Gemini “thinks” it means a newer version of some even earlier 706 model…that would be interesting…