The entries on my collection pages reflect, roughly, the order in which I have acquired the first example shown under any given entry; and for this reason I find them interesting to browse by page order. To locate a specific pen by manufacturer and model, click the Index link for the pertinent branch of the collection.

What pens am I carrying today?

My collection may look scattershot; I clearly do not focus on a single type, period, color, or other feature. Instead, I consider my collection to be a “teaching collection” whose contents span the range of technology, materials, and just plain “interesting-ness.”

Vintage American Fountain Pens

[ Index ]

My collection focuses primarily, although not exclusively, on vintage American pens. In general, vintage pens are pens that were made many years ago. Exactly how old a pen must be to qualify as “vintage” is a matter of opinion; for arbitrary reasons, I consider pens introduced before about 1960 to be vintage. The arbitrariness of this choice becomes clear if you observe that I consider all versions of the Parker “51” (except the modern 51 SE, which is a completely different pen) to be vintage even though the Mark III version wasn’t introduced until about 1969.

Vintage American Ballpoint Pens & Pencils

[ Index ]

I started out collecting fountain pens only, but inevitably a ballpoint fell into my clutches. And when I consider the history of fountain pens, it turns out that ballpoints have been right in the thick of things — affecting the design and production of fountain pens — since the end of World War II. For this reason, I include ballpoints in my collection.

In most cases, my pencils are shown together with the fountain pens they match as parts of sets. But I have a few pencils that stand alone, and they are also in this section.

Other Fountain Pens

[ Index ]

The United States of America has never held exclusive rights to manufacture fountain pens that are interesting or of high quality, or both. Although I started out to collect neither pens made in other countries nor modern American pens, I discovered that I do find some of these pens interesting enough that I want to own them. Thus, I do have a few such pens in my collection.

Brighten up your screen with these and other free downloadable computer desktop wallpapers from Richard’s Wallpaper Shop.