Richard’s Pen Collection : Other 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?

This pen isn’t vintage, and it’s not even American, but the British-made Parker 100 yet bears a grand old American name, and it seems to me that it lives up to the marque it bears. The 100 is as much a pen for its time as was its ancestor, the “51”. The styling of the 100 is clearly a nod to that of the “51”, but — in tune with the times — the 100 is heavier, broader, and a little more streamlined than its forebear. The resulting writing instrument feels solid and handles very nicely. Although Parker has not chosen to give the 100 an interchangeable nib, the nib and the feed bear a distinct resemblance to those of the venerable Parker 45, and the 100 writes very reliably. Capped, the 100 is 5¹⁹/₃₂", a little longer than the “51”, while at 5¹⁵/₁₆" it’s a tiny bit shorter posted than most “51”s.

My Black Cobalt 100 was made in the first quarter of 2004 and displays on its barrel the engraved word SAMPLE. The pen was given to a merchant as a display piece, and Parker tried to ensure that it would stay that way by filling the section with epoxy before installing the nib, feed, and converter. I took the pen in trade from a client, and after I had worked on enough 100s to be certain I liked the model, I went out and bought a second pen to cannibalize from in order to make the SAMPLE pen into a working unit. Now my 100 has a custom-tuned smooth and wet medium nib.

At some point along the way, I acquired a narrow-band Sonnet Flighter (with chrome furniture) that was made in the first quarter of 1998. I consider the Sonnet one of the landmark pens of the 20th century; it sometimes takes a little setting-up, but once it’s right it’s like the Energizer Bunny. My pen, 5³/₁₆" capped and 5¹³/₁₆" posted, originally carried an unplated steel nib; but I’ve replaced that nib with a broad 18K nib that’s nice and wet. Is it “correct”? Nope. Do I care? Nope. This pen also appears among my collection of Flighters.

One of my friends, who lives in Paris, took it into his head to send me a little gift. It came with several Waterman X-Pens for repair. What it is, is a calligraphy pen sold by a shop called the Writing Table, in a corner of Paris that isn’t particularly hard to find, but the shop doesn’t normally see much of the tourist trade. (My friend says he thinks I’m the only person in the U.S.A. who has one of these pens.) It’s a cartridge-only pen, and it’s sold with a 1.1 or 1.5 or 2.0-mm nib. This one has a 1.5-mm nib, and the really cool part is that he took it from his personal collection to give it to me. The pen is 4³¹/₃₂" capped and 5¹¹/₁₆" posted. I tend not to like weighted pens, but the slight added weight in the barrel of this one produces an excellent balance, especially when the pen is posted. Made of ABS with a matte aluminum lacquer finish, it’s probably pretty much indestructible.

I keep saying that I don’t collect foreign pens, but — as with the Pelikan 100 — there is something so magical about the bulletlike, smoothly streamlined Aurora 88 that I had to have one. This is a 1947 model designed by the noted Italian architect and designer Marcello Nizzoli. It is 5³/₈" capped and 5⁷/₈" posted, a size that puts it in the same general class as the magnificent Parker ”51”. And, like its size, its superb design puts it into that class. The 88 is not a European “51”; but Aurora of Torino, which lays claim to having produced the first truly Italian fountain pen in 1919, designed and built a close competitor for the “51” and a remarkably desirable pen in its own right. The 88’s richly finned feed, as capacious as a modern collector-style feed, produces a very reliable flow through its delicious flexible nib, and the traditional European piston filler gives the pen a very large capacity. The cap slips smoothly on and off despite its lack of a Parker-style spring clutch, and once in place it stays there.

Being a Namiki/Pilot dealer doesn’t get me on the inside track for pens that Pilot doesn’t sell in the U.S.A. So when a friend offered me a Pilot Custom 742 with an FA (flexible) nib, it’s not as if I’d turn it down. This pen is very traditional and laid back, very “Japanese,” in appearance until you see the cut-out shoulders of the nib. Those notches allow this lovely nib to flex wonderfully, and the pen is a definite keeper. It’s 5³/₄" capped — rather long for a guy who likes ordinary-sized pens — but it posts to only 6⁷/₃₂", and that makes it a very comfortable writer.