Life, 1925-04-30 · page 2 of 42
Life — April 30, 1925 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Sheaffer's fountain pen advertisement**, not political satire. The ornate decorative border frames a product display showing the "Lifetime" model fountain pen positioned across a heraldic shield. The ad promotes the pen's durability and prestige, emphasizing its "point of honor" (a guaranteed lifetime nib) and construction from "radite" (an indestructible material). The text claims it requires "no repairs" and represents "a new world leadership" in writing instruments. The heraldic imagery and language about "epoch-making popularity" and "record-making demand" use grandiose marketing rhetoric typical of early 20th-century luxury goods advertising. For modern readers, this reflects how premium pens were positioned as status symbols and lifetime investments before ballpoint pens became ubiquitous.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
This fountain pen is writing a new history of achievement On the crest of an epoch-makin3, popularity, it is heralded, not only as a thing of beauty, but as an outstanding, and needed improvement. Its first {reat advantage was a “point of honor,” a remarkable nib that is Zuaranteed to last a lifetime. And now comes a jewel-like barrel that is practically unbreakable and indestructible, because it is made of radite. Radite! Even the roughest usage will not harm it; light it is in weight, with a radiant elegance all its own. The now far-famed Lifetime “‘is the pen of no repairs.” It is built to endure. Spot it by the dot in its field of jade—the white dot. Through the edict of a record-makin3, demand this fine writing, instrumeat has established a new world leadership. Green “Lifetime” for men, $8.75—for women, $7.50 Others, $2.50 and up At better stores everywhere SHEAFFER'S PENS:>PENCILS:>SKR 'W.A SHEAFFER PEN COMPANY FORT MADISON, IOWA comicbooks.com