Pens on this page are part of my personal collection and are not for sale. If there is a magnifying-glass symbol () next to a pen, click the magnifying glass to view a zoomed version for more detail.

Early fountain pens had no levers, buttons, or other filling mechanisms. To fill one of these pens, you screw it apart, usually at a nearly invisible joint between the gripping section and the barrel, and fill it with an eyedropper. When you reassemble it, you cap it with a cap that slips over the tapered section and is held in place, if you’re lucky, by friction. Pens of this type were notorious for uncapping themselves and leaking, and it was this fault that led to the invention of “safety” pens such as Moore’s Non-Leakable and the Parker Jack-Knife.

My earliest eyedropper is this straight-cap overfeed design, a D. W. Beaumel pen labeled only “THE RIVAL” PAT. FEB 14 – 93. (The patent date yields the maker’s name.) This pen, 5" capped and 5²⁹/32" posted, has a straight cap and two repoussé gold bands.

Not my oldest ED, but among my most cherished ones, is this Parker Lucky Curve Nº 1. Priced at $1.50, this straight-cap model was the least expensive of Parker’s pens during the latter half of the “Oughties” (c. 1905-1910). Its barrel imprint proudly proclaims that its patented features include the Lucky Curve feed and the feed’s 1905 enhancement, the notches that have earned it the “Christmas Tree” nickname. At 5⁵/8" capped and 6¹/2" posted, this baby is about the size and shape of a BiC Stic — but it doesn’t write like one. Its nib is the right size, but it’s actually a later Parker nib that I reworked to fit the pen (which arrived with an Evans nib). I have to admit that I like this juicy medium stub.

Next is another D. W. Beaumel eyedropper, made probably around 1910. This cone-cap pen is 5¹¹/32" capped, 6³/4" posted. With its large flexible stub Warranted No. 4 nib and two repoussé gold bands, this pen was probably fairly expensive; it might have sold for perhaps $3.00.

L. E. Waterman was famous for the quality of its pens, and this red mottled hard rubber cone-cap Waterman’s ideal Nº 12 eyedropper is a lovely example of the company’s production. The pen body, which is 5³/16" capped and 6¹³/16" posted, has a broad repoussé cap band and a gorgeous surface pattern that is almost a woodgrain, dark but with a bit of fire here and there — but it almost pales into insignificance because of its nib, a needle-fine superflexible “wet noodle.”

Waterman’s model numbering system assigned the 20s range to taper-cap pens. Roughly contemporaneous with the Nº 12 above is is this black chased hard rubber Waterman’s Ideal Nº 24. At 5²⁷/32" capped and 6¹⁵/16" posted, this pen has has two broad repoussé bands on its barrel and a smooth fine semiflex Nº 4 nib.

A pen doesn’t have to have a name on it to be a good pen. I have several more modern no-name pens, and I couldn’t resist this lovely overlay ED. It’s 5²³/32" capped and 7¹/16" posted, a big pen. Its mother-of-pearl overlay uses shell whose golden hue matches the color of the gold-filled overlay; it’s an elegant touch that I would normally expect to see on a more prestigious pen — but I won’t fight it. The Nº 4 WARRANTED nib has enough flex to be interesting, but it’s not a wet noodle.

Parker Duofold Geometric: The “Toothbrush”

Profile

In the 1930s, Parker allowed the Duofold to languish, removing it from the catalog in 1935. In 1939, the Duofold reappeared, not as the top of Parker’s line, but as a button filler of only moderate quality, rather similar to the Challenger and called the Duofold Geometric. Its unusual celluloid bears a pattern that is reminiscent of a toothbrush, and today it is usually known as the Parker “Toothbrush.” The Geometric was short lived; in 1940 the Striped Duofold replaced it. My Geometric, made in 1939, is 5¹/16" capped, 5¹³/16" posted, and it has a firm fine 14K nib.

A Fountain Pen That You Don’t Fill

Profile

In 1956, Parker introduced the first fountain pen that actually fills itself by itself, requiring no action from the user. No button, no lever, no plunger, no squeeze bar, just take off the barrel and put the back end of the Parker 61 into a bottle of ink, and the pen sucks up a fill by capillary action. Advertised as “Unlike any gift in this world…or any other,” the capillary-filling 61 was (and still is) a remarkable pen, but it was ultimately unsuccessful because its somewhat finicky filling system required more care than others. Like the “51” before it, the 61 appeared in numerous variations.

My black 61 is a first-year model; its green/rose gold Rainbow cap has a First Edition medallion (shown above, to the right) and yellow gold-plated furniture. This Mark I pen is 5⁷/16" capped and 5²³/32" posted, and its smooth medium nib is adjusted to write a veritable river. (Many 61s are notoriously dry writers.)

At 5⁹/32" capped, 5⁵/8" posted, my Vista Blue 61 is the second model (Mark II); the most visible difference is the thicker trim ring between the barrel and shell. This pen, with a Lustraloy cap and chrome-plated furniture, has a smooth wet medium nib.

I also have a 61 Mark II Flighter, which is 5¹¹/32" capped, 5¹⁹/32" posted. This lovely pen has a smooth wet extra-fine nib. Interestingly, this pen’s cap has a “51”-style ring clutch rather than the 61-style finger clutch.

At 5³/8" capped, 5²¹/32" posted, my fourth 61, in Rage Red with a gold-filled cap, looks like a Mark II pen. But it is actually the third and final 61 version (Mark III), a cartridge/converter model that Parker produced in response to numerous complaints about the cantankerous nature of the capillary filler (which actually works remarkably well if given proper care and feeding). No longer was the 61 the pen that you don’t fill! This pen has a smooth wet fine nib.

Some pens just aren’t made to have caps. My 61 Mark II desk pen is one of those — its 5²⁷/32" length fits perfectly in my hand, and of course its smooth wet medium nib makes writing with it a pleasure. I especially enjoy the ’60s space-age styling (U.S. Patent Nº D193,373), so out of fashion now but who knows…?

Fountain Pens That Aren’t Fountain Pens?

Design Features

If a fountain pen has to have a nib, stylographic pens aren’t fountain pens. A stylograph’s point is a small metal tube with a wire running through it. The wire is attached to a weight inside the pen, and when the pen is at rest with its point downward, the weight blocks the ink passage to prevent leakage. When the point touches the paper, the wire pushes the weight upward in the barrel to allow ink to flow. Alonzo Townsend Cross received a patent for the first successful stylographic pen in 1877 (seven years before Waterman’s patent for the channelled feed), after he had already been selling his pens for several years. With their very rigid points, stylographic pens offer a significant advantage over most fountain pens with nibs: They are eminently suitable for producing carbon copies. Today, stylographic pens are used in drafting, technical illustration, and art.

My oldest stylographic pen is a BCHR Gravity Stylo eyedropper filler. It is 4³/8" capped, 5⁹/16" posted, and its medium point is nice and smooth.

My first Inkograph is a splendid spiral woodgrain model in hard rubber, probably from the early 1930s. It is 5³/8" capped, 6¹¹/16" posted, and it has a fine point.

Next is another Inkograph pen, from the latter half of the 1930s, probably a Model 70, in Moss Agate celluloid, with a fine point and a transparent section. This pen is 4²⁹/32" capped, 6¹/8" posted.

© 2008 Richard F. Binder

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