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.

The Pelikan 100, a European pen, is so excellent and enjoyable that I have included it in my permanent collection. Pelikan began making fountain pens in 1929, with a model that was little different from the pen here. Gradually adding refinements to its pen, the company adopted the model number 100 in 1931 to distinguish its then-current model from future models. The 100 is the classic Pelikan, with a sophisticated and very reliable piston filler and Pelikan’s unusual longitudinal-comb feed. My 100 was made in about 1936. It’s 4¹³/16" capped, 6¹/8" posted, and it has a medium 14K semiflex nib.

I’m a Pelikan dealer, but I never found just the Pelikan that I wanted to carry as a regular thing. Until I chatted with Rick Propas, the PENguin, about the possibility of acquiring one of those delicious Tortoise M800s, that is. Well, the price was way out of reach, and there weren’t any of those pens looking for homes, and I really don’t feel comfortable with a pen that big anyway, so when Rick mentioned that there existed an M400 in Tortoise with M800 trim, I pretty much jumped all over it. And this is it — what a gorgeous pen! Just my size, the bestest color of all, and it’s all mine! it has a fine nib and it’s 4¹⁵/16" capped, 5²⁵/32" posted.

The Italian city of Settimo Torinese is famous for its penmakers. Filcao, a small family-owned company, began in 1964 as a producer of parts for other companies’ pens. After having launched its own pen line in 1968, Filcao now produces a broad variety of pens in the low-to-middle price range. One particular design caught my eye when I first discovered Filcao: the Leader, which bears a resemblance to the famous Parker Duofold, yet it has a charm all its own.

My Leader is Filcao’s original take on the Flat-Top look, a Leader 1918. This very sturdy cartridge/converter model features a snap cap and a section with an interesting crenellated trim ring. My pen, one of only two that were made with this particular charcoal celluloid, has a 14K Mutschler medium nib, and it is 5¹/4" capped, 6⁷/16" posted.

Early “safety” pen designs were based on such features as retractable nibs to keep from leaking in the user’s pocket. In the United States, L. E. Waterman was well known for its safety design, which uses a helical channel to retract or extend the nib when the user turns a knob at the back end of the barrel. To fill the pen, you use an eyedropper to put ink into the opening that is left when the nib is retracted. Several other companies produced pens that worked in the same way.

First among my Waterman-style safeties is a Fendograf from the 1920s. Fendograf, based in Milan, Italy, specialized in overlays. Initially, they used U.S.-made Waterman pens, changing later to Italian and German pens made especially for them. (Fendogfaf overlays and other European pens like them are commonly called “Continentals.”) My Fendograf has a green gold-filled (rolled gold) overlay depicting birds, leaves, and other fanciful designs that at first glance resemble Egyptian heiroglyphics. This pen has a lovely flexible nib, and it is 4²¹/32" capped and 6¹/16" posted.

It is not impossible that Fendograf may have used pens built by Kilo-Werk Hennef, the German maker of my Regina Nº 410, but I consider it unlikely. This clipless BCHR Regina is probably a fairly late safety, as implied by its comb feed. It is 5¹/8" capped and 6⁷/32" posted, and it is fitted with a semiflexible fine stub nib.

The French have always been known for making beautiful things, and this Gold Starry safety in RMHR is certainly an attractive pen. The delicate knurlings at the cap crown and the joint between the pen body and its back end add a subtle elegance. The cast or stamped brass accommodation clip, on the other hand, is typically, extravagantly French; where else but in France would you see overwrought design like this? The pen itself, in addition to its outstanding good looks (despite some distinct fading of the rubber on the side that’s out of sight here), also has spendid manners; with Its sweet fine 18K semiflex nib, it’s a great writer and remarkably pleasant in the hand. I wish I knew more about the manufacturer. (I guess that’s a research project.) At 4¹/2" capped and 5²⁹/32" posted, this pen is pretty average in size.

Another RMHR safety came my way in the form of this D&D Météore. Its actuator tube was broken, and its owner sent it as a nib donor for another of his pens. A couple of years later, I’ve finally repaired the actuator. I installed a 14K WARRANTED nib, terribly incorrect for a French pen but a splendidly smooth writer nevertheless, and this nice safety, which is 5¹/22" capped and 6¹⁷/64" posted. The white ring above the clip’s washer was originally hard rubber, but I’ve machined a polystyrene replacement for appearance. (I kept the original, of course!)

When the Communist Chinese nationalized foreign holdings, the Shanghai Hero Pen Company was born in the Parker factory in Shanghai. Today Hero makes a broad assortment of pens; I particularly like the Hero 100 (in its many variants), which still employs the basic design of Parker’s great Aero-metric “51”.. These Heros also borrow from Sheaffer an excellent spring-loaded clip design.

My Flighter-like brushed stainless steel 100, with its nib of 14K gold, is a pen whose quality is about equal to that of the Parker “51” Mark III. It is 5½" capped, 5³¹/32" posted.

Next is an “upscale” version with a distinctly Italian flair to it, called the 100 Chrome. This pen, with its thicker metal cap and barrel, has noticeably more heft than the plainer 100s, but it’s still very well balanced. It’s also a slightly different size, at 5⁹/16" capped and 5¹³/16" posted.

© 2008 Richard F. Binder

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