Paper Mate made their name in the early 1950s with a range of ballpoint pens, largely due to a huge advertising campaign in 1953 which cost around two million dollars, a record spend for a pen company at the time.
It wan't until much later that they entered the fountain pen market with a high quality, metal bodied pen made in West Germany. There is some speculation that the pen was made by Montblanc, and the Paper mate does bear a passing resemblance to the Montblanc Noblesse, but I think the jury is out on that one.
Whoever made the pen did a good job. The Paper Mate 'Chrome' fountain pen is a robust and high performing pen of the 'Flighter' type. Despite the name the only chrome bits are the cap and barrel ends and the clip, the rest is brushed steel.
A slim and elegant pen, it is a cartridge/ converter model with a gold plated nib, the one I acquired recently had a Paper mate ink converter fitted.
The pen is very well made and has a high quality feel, the well appointed presentation case suggests that the company saw the pen a a premium product.
