Editing Esterbrook (section)

===Decline===
In 1947 Esterbrook bought out John Mitchell (which had been established in 1822 as the World's first manufacturer to cut nibs by machine) and then acquired Hazell Pen Co. The company re-formed again as "The Esterbrook Pen Company". Some time after that, Esterbrook ceased production of dip pen nibs permanently.

The post war years had seen a decline particularly in the export trade to the traditional markets of the British Empire. As those countries gained independence due to American aid, they had more dollars to spend in the United States than pounds in the United Kingdom.<ref name=hanspresto/>

Esterbrook continued to thrive until the beginning of 1960 when it started to see a decline in export trades with England. In 1967 the Esterbrook Empire was bought out by the Venus Pencil Company and thus the name changed to "Venus Esterbrook", which continued to produce replacement nibs for [[fountain pen]]s. There were numerous administrative changes and moves and eventually their final base of operations was vacated in 1972, though the building still stands today.

Venus Esterbrook would be finally taken over by [[Berol]] in 1971,<ref name=whiteapple/><ref>[http://www.berol.co.uk/berolhistory.html History of Berol Company]</ref><ref>[http://www.kamakurapens.com/Archive/EsterbrookPens.html Esterbrook history, Kamakura Pens website]</ref> all Esterbrook operations ceased.<ref name=making>[http://esterbrookpen.com/history-in-the-making/ History in the making] on Esterbrook website, 10 Jul 2015</ref>