The Phaeton 300 was Esterbrook's entry into the hooded nib market. It was offered as a "convertible" with either cartridge use or an aerometric convertor. Similar in appearance to the M2 pens, these had a more tapered cap and barrel. This was also a friction fit cap. Pencils are also twist fill like later Safari pencils.
The Phaeton can be found with two different hood designs, The "I" design shown at top, and the arrow design shown at bottom. Like the Parker 61, the inlay on these is easy to wear away like the bottom pen shows. The Phaeton came equipped with 14kt Gold Plated nibs.
While not a Phaeton this pen exhibits a Phaeton style metal cap, with the exception that it is a screw cap and has a smooth finish as opposed to the lined finish of the Phaeton (and M2 for that matter). This is sort of a wierd mix of Phaeton style cap, M2 barrel and section, with the lever style of the later CX-100 series. Anyone know the model of this? Anyone have other colors?
