Glossary of Pen Terms

[  Reference Info Index  ]

Like any other specialized item, the fountain pen has amassed a lexicon of terms that are unique. And like other jargon languages, fountain pen jargon can be cryptic or confusing. This glossary presents brief definitions for many of the most common pen terms. It is not complete (an impossible goal); but it is a work in progress, and I welcome suggestions for terms to add. (Revised January 25, 2012)

The glossary is organized alphabetically. For numbers, look under the spelled-out form; e.g., for 14K, look under fourteen.

If there is a magnifying-glass symbol () next to an image, click the magnifying glass to view a zoomed version for more detail.

M
Mabie Todd	(Mabie, Todd & Company) A pen manufacturing company located in New York City; founded in 1860 by John Mabie, Edward Todd, and J. Sprague Bard after a series of mergers among several pencil and gold pen (dip nib) companies of which all three men had variously been principals since the 1840s. Reformed as Mabie, Todd & Bard in 1873, the company produced a range of very high-quality pens, pencils, and accessories of innovative design. In about 1878, the company introduced its first fountain pen, the Calligraphic, utilizing a design by the prolific inventor William W. Stewart (e.g., U.S. Patent Nº 206,200). Advances in Mabie Todd pens followed further invention by Stewart. The "Swan" fountain pen appeared c. 1890, and Swan overlay eyedroppers were among the most beautiful and ornate pens of their era. In 1907, the company was incorporated as Mabie, Todd & Company. Shown below is an early Swan screw-cap pen bearing this name in its imprint. The company opened a London office in 1884 and began manufacturing pens in Britain c. 1909. U.S. manufacture of lever fillers, in hard rubber and then celluloid, continued into the late 1930s, but quality and sales had by then declined seriously, and the American company closed its doors in 1941. The British company continued in operation until the 1950s; among its lesser model names were Blackbird and Swallow, and it produced two distinct versions of a model called the Leverless. See also Leverless.
Machine Gun	A marketing term used by Eversharp to promote the rapid-fire action of its repeater mechanical pencils (1940s, Skyline and Fifth Avenue). See also mechanical pencil.
magic pencil	A Victorian mechanical pencil designed so that pulling out the back end extends the nozzle (the lead-carrying tip) while simultaneously making the pencil long enough to use comfortably; pushing the back end in again retracts the nozzle. Shown below is a niello propel-repel magic pencil in its retracted and extended positions. See also mechanical pencil.
Magnetic	A high-quality “space age” pen produced c. 1950 by Stratford, a third-tier company whose other pens were generally of low quality. The pen’s barrel had fins flaring out to meet the platform-like metal ring at the back of the barrel; the cap contained a magnet to hold the pen capped or posted by attraction to the barrel ring or the similar ring at the end of the section. See also Salz.
Magnum	A term used by collectors and by some manufacturers to indicate a larger version of another model. Shown below are Bexley’s Poseidon and Poseidon Magnum. See also Maxima, oversize..
Majestic	See Harris.
Major	The name Parker assigned to its standard-sized Vacumatic pen beginning with the 1937 introduction of the Speedline redesign. Shown below are a 1934 Standard and a 1939 Major. See also Vacumatic.
majuscule	(also uppercase) A “capital” letter in writing, usually with a height spanning the distance between the baseline and the head line (see illustration at x-height). See also baseline, head line, meanline, minuscule, x-height.
maki-e	(Japanese for “sprinkled picture,” pronounced roughly mah-kee-eh) A decorative treatment; the application of abstract or figural artwork to a lacquered surface (usually urushi) using gold powder. The gold is applied while the surface is wet and sticky, and the wet lacquer bonds the gold in place. The technique can involve the application of dozens or even hundreds of extremely thin coats of lacquer. To create maki-e finishes of high quality requires many months of labor by highly skilled artisans, and pens bearing such designs are very costly. The maki-e designs on inexpensive pens are usually applied by silkscreening and embellished by hand. Illustrated here is a Pilot Phoenix maki-e pen, by Namiki. See also lacquer, urushi.
Makrolon	Registered trademark for the polycarbonate resin of which the Lamy 2000 (shown below, introduced in 1964 and still in production as of 2011) is made. Polycarbonate is extremely tough; in sheet form, it is used for bulletproof windows.
Mandarin	1  A yellow color used on Parker Duofolds in the late 1920s (near right). Unpopular at that time, Mandarin Duofolds are today rare and highly prized.  2  An orange color used on the Sheaffer Snorkel from 1956 to 1959 (far right), and a similar color used on the Parker 45 beginning in 1967.
Manhattan	A sub-brand of Salz Brothers; easily identified as such by the circular SB logo on the clip and on the paddle at the end of the lever. See also Salz.
Maniflex	A range of very attractive but otherwise ordinary lever-filling celluloid pens produced by Moore in the late 1920s and the 1930s. These pens’ nibs, imprinted with the MANIFLEX name, are good semiflexible nibs but are greatly prone to cracking upward from the base.
manifold	Indicates an extremely rigid nib, intended to permit the heavy writing pressure needed to make impressions on multipart (carbon) forms. Sometimes called a “nail” (mildly derisive). See also nib.
Marathon	(Marathon Pen Company) A pen manufacturing company located in New York City; operated during the 1920s. Many Marathon pens were made of hard rubber with very thin “filigree” overlays (e.g., 1/40 14K), and they featured good-quality 14K nibs with a script Marathon imprint. (See photo below.) Marathon may have been a sub-brand of Morrison; designs are essentially identical to Morrison’s, and some Marathon pens have clips and levers bearing a logo very similar to Morrison’s. See also Morrison.
marbled	Having an irregular pattern made by combining two or more colors, as shown to the right. The term is used to refer to plastic, not to hard rubber. See also hard rubber, mottled.
Marblette	See Bakelite (definition 1).
Marine Green	A color name used by Sheaffer and Eversharp. Sheaffer introduced its first Marine Green, the pearlized color shown here by the leftmost of the three chips, in 1930 on the Balance. 1936 signaled a change in Sheaffer’s color line with the introduction of striated colors; the second chip here illustrates the striated Marine Green that Sheaffer used until it replaced celluloid with injection-moldable cellulosic plastic in 1948. Eversharp gave a new meaning to Marine Green in 1941 with its introduction of the Skyline, whose Marine Green refers to the color of a U.S. Marine’s uniform. The color remained in Eversharp’s palette until the company was bought by Parker in 1957, appearing on the Fifth Avenue, Symphony (second and third generations), Ventura, and Slim Ventura.
marriage	The creation of a single pen using parts from two different models, e.g., combining the cap from a Waterman Nº 55 “Ripple” with the barrel from a Nº 7. (The pen shown below illustrates this exact combination.) Serious collectors consider marriage an unacceptable practice because it produces an inauthentic result. Contrast with cannibalization.
Marxton	See Eclipse.
Master Pen	1  A pen model introduced c. 1915 by the Bankers Pen Company; made of hard rubber, it featured Julius Schnell’s patented slide filler.  2  A celluloid pen model introduced by the Julius L. Schnell Pen Company, fitted with the Schnell slide filler and featuring a version of Schnell’s famous “Airplane” clip (designed to commemorate Lindbergh’s 1927 transatlantic flight). See also Bankers, Schnell.
Masterpiece	A model name used by Sheaffer for its solid 14K gold pens. Shown here is a lever-filling Masterpiece made in 1946 or 1947; the lever is on the bottom of the barrel. See also Sheaffer, Sheaffer names.
Master Series	Esterbrook’s trademark for its primary series of iridium-tipped Renew-Point nibs, introduced in 1940. These nibs were numbered 9xxx. Master Series nibs were not the only tipped Renew-Point nibs; the 3xxx Osmiridium Tip, 5xxx and 7xxx Dip-Less, and 8xxx (World War II palladium nibs) series were all tipped. See also Duracrome, Esterbrook, Renew-Point. Read a page with a (nearly) complete listing of Renew-Point nibs here.
matchstick	A type of filling system; operates by mechanical ink-sac squeeze. A metal pressure bar, located beneath a small hole in the side of the barrel, squeezes the sac laterally when depressed by insertion of a matchstick or similar object into the hole. The hole is sometimes protected by a metal band that can be rotated or slid to expose the hole. View filling instructions here.
Maxima	The name Parker assigned to its oversized Vacumatic pen beginning with the 1937 introduction of the Speedline redesign. In 1939, the first version of the Maxima was renamed Senior Maxima to make way for a slightly thinner Maxima model. See also Magnum, oversize.
MB	Montblanc.
meanline	An imaginary line representing the height of ordinary minuscules in writing (see illustration at x-height). Of interest primarily to calligraphers as a reference in choosing nib sizes. The height of the meanline is frequently 5/8 the distance between the baseline and the head line. See also baseline, head line, majuscule, minuscule, x-height.
mechanical pencil	(abbreviated MP) A writing instrument that uses replaceable graphite leads and is fitted with a helical-cam mechanism to extend and (usually) retract the lead when the user rotates (depending on the particular pencil’s design) a collar, the nozzle (nose cone), or the cap. A mechanical pencil that extends the lead but cannot retract it is referred to as a propel pencil; most propel pencils (also called clickers or repeater pencils) work by repeated pressing of a button at the back end of the barrel. A pencil that can also retract the lead is a propel-repel pencil. A propel-repel pencil with a mechanism to eject the last remaining bit of unusable lead is a propel-repel-expel pencil. Shown below are a Parker Pastel propel-repel-expel pencil from c. 1927 and an Eversharp Skyline repeater pencil from the 1940s. See also Continuous Feed.magic pencil.
Meisterstück	A German word (pronounced approximately MYE-ster-shterk) meaning masterpiece, used by Montblanc to designate its top-line pen models (numbered in the 1xx range). Shown here is a Model 149 (Diplomat), the largest in the line.
MEK	See methyl ethyl ketone.
METAL	A mark appearing on parts made of precious metal alloyed in too low a concentration to be so marked; e.g., gold that is not at least 18K (750/1000), which under French law may not be sold as “gold.” See also 18K.
methyl ethyl ketone	(also butanone, MEK, methyl acetone) A solvent (CH3C(O)CH2CH3) often used for fusing (solvent welding) cracks in celluloid pen parts; it is readily available and inexpensive, but its moderate-to-low reactivity produces weak bonds while its high volatility causes bubbles that mar the appearance of the repaired part. It is also extremely flammable; harmful or fatal if swallowed; and harmful if inhaled or absorbed through the skin. See also acetone.
MHR	Mottled Hard Rubber. See also hard rubber, mottled.
Michael George	(Michael George Pen Company) See Kraker.
middle joint	A design for eyedropper-filling pens (c. 1900) that placed the joint for opening and filling the pen in the middle of the barrel rather than at the usual location, ostensibly to reduce the risk of stained fingers due to ink seepage at the joint. In effect, the entire proximal half of the pen is the gripping section. The HUB FOUNTAIN PEN (Davidson Rubber Company) shown here features a projecting ring to mark the location of the joint. See also eyedropper filler, Jointless.
Milady	See Sheaffer names.
military clip	A clip that is affixed very close to the end of the cap and also is usually shorter than a standard clip, made so that the pen can be clipped into a pocket whose flap can then be buttoned over the pen to conceal it in compliance with United States military regulations. Some clips, notably those by Parker and Esterbrook, are inherently “military” in design, while others, such as those on Sheaffer’s Balance pens (except for the special 1940s miltary-clip version, shown here), do not comply with military regulations. See also clip, Tuckaway.
milled band	(also knurled band) A cap band with closely spaced parallel grooves running along its length (orthogonal to its circumference), often with a blank rectangular area on one side for use as an indicia. The indicia of the band illustrated here, on a Sheaffer Sovereign, is engraved with the initials J.F.P. See also indicia, Jeweler’s band, Stacked Coin band.
Miller Rubber Co. Inc.	Located in Akron, Ohio, the Miller Rubber Company was founded in 1892 to manufacture tires and other rubber products, and the company is still in business as of this writing. Because Miller made its latex formulation without carbon, Miller pen sacs (branded RELLIM / Miller Rubber Co. Inc.) are light brown in color. See also sac, White Rubber Company.
Milleraies	(French for thousand rays, pronounced roughly MEEL-ray) Term used by Parker and others for an uninterrupted pattern of closely spaced parallel lines running the length of a metal pen (shown to the right). Illustrated below is a chrome-plated Parker 180 in the Milleraies pattern. See also Colonial.
mint	A term adopted from numismatics, to describe an item that is in “new” condition, nominally exactly as from the factory. Most collectors interpret “mint” to mean that the item shows no signs whatsoever of use, not even the tiny dings or scratches that could appear on a coin in mint condition. See also NOS.
minuscule	(also lowercase) A “little” letter in writing, generally with a body height spanning the distance between the baseline and the meanline (see illustration at x-height). See also baseline, head line, majuscule, meanline, x-height.
Miss Universe	See Sheaffer names.
Modern	(Modern Pen Company) See Waterman, A. A.
Moderne	1  Parker’s name for two colors used on some of its pens in the 1920s and 1930s (shown to the right, Moderne Black and Pearl, and Moderne Green and Pearl).  2  A pen model produced by Parker Canada from 1932 to 1934, one of the low-priced models known as a group to modern collectors as Thrift Time pens. (The Moderne was the Canadian equivalent to the U.S.-made Duette Jr.) Shown below (top) is a Moderne in mahogany with blue and white streaks. See also Duette (definition 2), Premier (definition 1), Thrift Time.  3  (also known as Day and Night or Night and Day) The name under which L. E. Waterman catalogued pens with overlay designs featuring longitudinal slots (French version illustrated below, middle). Waterman produced these pens during the 1920s; Sheaffer offered a similar design (illustrated below, bottom) a few years earlier. See also Colonnade, overlay.
Modernistic Blue	Parker’s bargello-like pattern of blue and white (shown to the right), commonly called “True Blue” (a euphonious sobriquet used by Parker in period advertising). Parker used Modernistic Blue for a smallish Depression-era pen priced at $3.50 and catalogued as the Three-Fifty. Offered in both ringtop and clip-style models, the Three-Fifty appeared in both flat-top and Streamlined versions. Parker also used Modernistic Blue for pens and pencils manufactured for the Zaner-Bloser company. Modernistic Blue pens are unfortunately prone to serious discoloration, as shown by the barrel of the pen below. See also Zaner-Bloser.
moiré	(also moire, without the accented e; pronounced approximately mwah-ray) Having a watery or shimmering surface pattern. In 1927, Parker added a series of moiré colors to its Pastel line of petite pens; shown here (near right) is Coral Moiré. The term is also used by collectors to describe the patterned celluloid used on early-production Eversharp Skylines and called Modern Stripe in Eversharp’s advertising. Shown here (far right) is the red Modern Stripe color commonly called Garnet. See also Pastel, Skyline.
mold	A fungal growth in ink. Frequently appears as floating “islands” on the surface of ink in a bottle or as a fuzzy white or beige growth in the area of the nib and feed of a pen, as shown in my article on caring for your pens. Contrast with SITB. See also fungicide.
molten	An adjective used by collectors to describe an engraved or imprinted line that shows absolutely no edge wear; e.g., to be molten, a chased line must still have the raised edges created by the chasing machine. The term is most frequently applied to barrel imprints and engraved caps such as the converging-line cap on a Parker “51”.
Monel metal	(also Monell metal) A group of alloys based on nickel and copper in approximately the proportions found in the ore from which the two metals are extracted, with properties varied by the addition of other metals such as iron or aluminum. Patented in 1906, Monel metals have been used extensively for myriad products, including cast pen parts. See also nickel silver.
Monogram	A “house brand” used for pens sold by Rexall drugstores. Monogram pens were made for Rexall by several companies, including the Sterling Pen Company (Davidson Rubber) and the Michael George Pen Company (Kraker). Shown below is a Michael George-made Monogram from about 1920; this pen is interesting because it uses a unique latching lever patented by attorney Rudolph Lotz (but probably designed by George Kraker). See also Belmont, Rexall.
Monroe	(Monroe Pen Company) A pen manufacturing company set up in 1929 as a “child” company by Eclipse; shared its personnel and New York City address with the parent company. Monroe pens were of high quality and were sold as a “luxury” line into the mid-1930s. They featured attractive colors and an au courant stepped-end Art Deco design; and, unlike many of Eclipse’s own-branded pens, they bore a distinct barrel imprint and MONROE-imprinted 14K nibs. Shown here is a top-of-the-line full-size Monroe. (The line included pens from ladies’ size to oversize.) See also Eclipse.
Moore	(Moore Pen Company) A pen manufacturing company located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded as the American Fountain Pen Company in 1899 by Walter F. Cushing and William F. Cushman, who had acquired the rights to Morris W. Moore’s design for a retractable safety pen (U.S. Patent Nº 567,151). Moore’s Non-Leakable Safety Pen was remarkably simple and straightforward to manufacture, and it sold extremely well into the 1920s with only one modification, the addition in 1918 of a prong at the base of the cap to force-retract the nib if the user began to cap the pen before retracting the nib manually. Acquiring people and intellectual property in 1917 upon the dissolution of the Boston Fountain Pen Company (bought by Wahl), the company renamed itself as the Moore Pen Company and expanded its line into high-quality lever fillers. Among the Boston people coming to Moore was co-owner George F. Brandt, who developed for Moore an improved version of the comb feed whose patent had gone to Wahl. ¶ Like L. E. Waterman, Moore was slow to adopt newer technologies, abandoning hard rubber pens in 1926 but continuing to make flat-top models (below, upper, a Maniflex) well into the 1930s. Moore’s celluloid pens are noted for their beautiful patterns and colors (below, lower, a 94-A). In 1946, the company introduced the Finger tip, an odd-looking streamlined pen intended to compete with the Parker “51”. Early Finger Tips had flow problems, later corrected. The pen nevertheless sold poorly, and Moore discontinued it in 1951; thereafter the company’s product was a line of mediocre squeeze fillers. Moore finally went out of business in 1956. See also Finger tip, non-leakable.
Morocco	One of the “exotic” celluloid colors (Burma, Cathay, Jet Black, Kashmir, and Morocco) offered on the first generation of the Wahl-Eversharp Doric. Morocco is chunks of pearlescent maroon veined with black, as shown to the right. See also Burma, Cathay, Doric, Kashmir.
Morrison	(Morrison Fountain Pen Company) A pen manufacturing company located in New York City. Founded in 1910, the company operated into the 1950s. During the 1920s, Morrison was known for hard rubber pens of varying quality, ranging from models fitted with untipped steel nibs and very thin “filigree” overlays (sterling silver or 1/40 14K gold) to versions bearing MORRISON-imprinted 14K nibs and high-quality repoussé “chased” overlays (1/20 14K), shown below, upper. Morrison’s best known pen is probably the Patriot, a syringe-filling pen made in versions honoring the four U.S. armed services during World War II (below, lower, a Navy Patriot). See also Patriot. ¶ Do not confuse Morrison with the Japanese company that was founded in 1918 as Kikaku Seisakusyo and changed its name in 1933 to Morison (with only one r).
Moss-Agate	Waterman’s name for a celluloid color consisting of gold/brown marbled patches on a green ground, as shown to the right. Moss-Agate was first used on the Patrician and Lady Patricia (below). See also Lady Patricia, Patrician.
mother-of-pearl	The iridescent inner layer of a mollusk shell, frequently that of an oyster. Mother-of-pearl is sometimes used as an overlay by itself as shown below, or combined with abalone, on pen barrels and caps. The pen below illustrates the care some makers took with subtle aesthetics: its mother-of-pearl overlay is made of shell chosen for its golden hue. See also abalone, alternating pearl, iridescent.
mottled	Having an irregular pattern made by combining two colors, as shown below. The term is used to refer to hard rubber, not plastics, and almost all vintage mottled hard rubber is a mixture of red and black. See also hard rubber, marbled.
MP	See mechanical pencil.
music nib	A nib that is relatively flexible and has a tip shaped like a broad stub italic with very soft edges (illustrated to the right) to allow for extreme freedom of use, especially at very high angles of elevation relative to the paper, as when a composer or arranger writes on the music desk while sitting at a piano. Music nibs often have three tines, with two slits to support a very heavy flow. See also italic, nib, stub.
Mustard	See Yellowstone.

The information in this glossary is as accurate as possible, but you should not take it as absolutely authoritative. If you have additions or corrections to this page, please consider sharing them with us to improve the accuracy of our information.