Richard’s Pen Collection : Vintage American Fountain Pens

Writing instruments on this page are part of my personal collection and are not for sale. Click the magnifying-glass symbol () next to any pen to view a zoomed image for more detail.

What pens am I carrying today?

The Salz Brothers pen company, founded and operated by brothers Jacob, James, and Ignatz, produced some very innovative pens; but today the company is probably best known for its series of Peter Pan pens. These small pens began in the early 1920s as truly tiny hard rubber eyedropper fillers and — like most every thing else — became SuperSized as time passed. Initially the pens were of surprisingly high quality despite their almost infinitesimal size; but by the time production ended, quality had deteriorated almost to bottom-feeder levels.

I have two Peter Pan pens, an undated BHR ringtop and a celluloid lever filler from about 1939. The ringtop is 2¹⁷/₃₂" capped and 3⁹/₃₂" posted. Its cap crown is made of a light-colored material that appears to be ivory. Although not so small as Waterman’s famous doll pen, this little charmer is a miniature by most standards.

My later Peter Pan was made as a holiday souvenir; its barrel is hot stamped Merry Christmas. This celluloid pen is identical in design to a combo I’ve seen that was made for the 1939 World’s Fair, and I assume that my pen was made at about the same time. This pen, SuperSized as it is, is 3¹/₂" long capped and 4¹/₈" posted.

As our world grows more complicated, we seem to have an ever-stronger sense of nostalgia about fountain pens. Collectors and users alike appreciate the elegance and simplicity of a bygone era. In the 1970s, several pen companies decided to capitalize on that backward-looking sensibility by introducing vintage-inspired pens. One such was Sheaffer’s Nostalgia, a cartridge/converter pen that appeared in several variants. My Nostalgia features a sterling silver “filigree” overlay and a factory stub nib. It’s 5⁹/₃₂" capped, 6²³/₃₂" posted — a significant difference that’s typical of older pens — and it handles very much like its forebears of 50 years earlier.

As collectors, we all appreciate the finer pens in life. But not everyone can afford a Nostalgia or a PFM; and what better way to start than with one of the best inexpensive pens ever made. In 1969, Sheaffer introduced a full-size molded-plastic flat-top cartridge-filling pen designed to sell for the ridiculously low price of $1.98. That’s in the school-pen range; but by then fountain pens in school were pretty much a thing of the past, having given way to ballpoints. The pen hung on nevertheless, and in 1976 Sheaffer revised its internals slightly and relaunched it as the No Nonsense Pen. (I don’t actually think this was intended as a snub to the man who penned “The Owl and the Pussycat,” but it is true that a five-pound note would at that time buy six or seven of these pens, not just one.) 5³/₁₆" capped and 6⁵/₃₂" posted, my orange No Nonsense has the typical stiff steel nib. This one, with a medium tip, has been tweaked to write very nicely. Even for a buck ninety-eight, you could have a great pen, and no nonsense about it.

Over the years Sheaffer has rung many changes on the No Nonsense, morphing it into the Viewpoint, the Vintage, the Old Timer, and — as you see here — Le Bordeaux. At 5¹/₄" capped and 6¹¹/₃₂" posted, Le Bordeaux is just enough longer than a No Nonsense to account for the flat cover that Sheaffer fused to the cap crown to cover the depression in the standard version’s cap, plus the gold-plated trim ring at the section/barrel joint. Same nib, same excellent balance, it’s a darn nice pen with its smooth medium tip.

One of the great pen makers of the 19th century was the John Holland Pen Company, which was founded in the early 1860s and made pens of superb quality. After the 1920s, we don’t hear much about Holland, and it might be supposed that the company went under, perhaps during the Great Depression. Not so. Holland continued to make pens until after World War II.

In the constant battle to stay abreast of new technology and fashion, Holland adopted new filling systems as they became available. Made before Holland began using its famous hatchet filler, this Nº 55 is fitted with a “saddle” filler. The metal piece on the barrel (the saddle) has a loop (like a saddle’s cinch) that passes through holes into the barrel and fits around a pressure bar lying on the bottom of the barrel. To fill the pen, you pull up up on the saddle to compress the sac and release it to allow the sac to fill. At 5²⁹/₃₂" capped, it becomes a very long 7¹³/₃₂" when posted. This is one big pen!

My first Holland hatchet filler is a 72V ringtop from sometime around 1920. This pen it also happens to be a very sweet BCHR pen, with perfect color and crisp chasing. (It was NOS when I bought it, never even dipped.) It’s not a very big pen, only 4¹⁵/₃₂ capped and 5⁵⁷/₆₄" posted, but it’s a prime example of why Holland pens were so respected: the nib rocks! if only I could figure out why it’s a Nº 12. Must have shrunk in the wash…

Next is a 71 with a gold-filled cutwork overlay. At 5¹⁵/₃₂ capped and 6³/₄" posted, it’s lovely despite a few rough edges. Like the 72V above, it has a sweet Nº 12 nib.

My Holland Jewel is a celluloid pen that I assume to be from the 1930s. I only figured out that this was a Holland when I actually took a look at the white tulip set into the cap; that was Holland’s logo. The body is a bit scuffed, as the pen apparently wasn’t treated all that well before it appeared in a box of junkers that I bought; but it’s a remarkably nice pen, with a good firm nib. And the glitter panels are unusual enough to pique my “gotta keep it” gene. Rather average for an Oversize pen at 5³/₈" capped, it grows to 6⁵/₈" when it’s posted. The nib is marked Holland Jewel, and I’ve used this as the (probably wrong) model name for the pen.