News — Vintage Fountain Pen

The original Sheaffer Crest snorkel filling pen was introduced in 1952: Forty years later a gold filled 'tribute pen' the Sheaffer Crest 590 was released at a whopping $265: At first sight the pens are pretty much identical, although the darker colour of the 23Ct. gold on the later pen is evident when compaed to the 14Ct. original. The nibs are also slightly different, the earlier pen is 14Ct. with a platinum mask wheeas the later pen has a plain 18Ct.Gold nib. The positioning of the threads is also different, and the older pen has a grooved section. The main...

Occasionally I come across a good vintage pen with no imprint or clear clue as to the name of the maker.  Unfortunately, we pen collectors generally have a mind that insists we classify a pen in great detail and mmany hours are  spent to satisfy this demand. This recent acqusition, an orphan, is a very good pen and, after many hours dellving into all available resources I'm no closer to identifying it's maker. It has a Wyvern nib, but I'm pretty sure that it's a later replacement so doesn't really help.  I'd like the pen to be a Wyvern though,...

The pen that Parker referred to as the '51 Standard' is one of the least well known of the 51 variants and is a very rare pen. This example is in American Burgundy:   From the picture the pen is indistinguishable from a Parker 51 Classic (the American pen was actually called a De Luxe).  It has a Lustralloy cap and a 14CT. Gold nib, suppled by a 'normal' Parker 51 collector and feed arrangement.  The material, finish, and build quality are the same, as is the cap and end stud.  So, what makes it a Standard and not a Classic,...

Most Esterbrook J series pens that are still around are the 'double jewel' version, introduced in 1948.  The first pens, however, were single jewelled pens, often known as 'transitionals' because they filled a gap between the Esterbrook Visumasters, introduced in 1941 and the J series. The early transitional pens, from 1944, had a squared off barrel end: The top picture is the later double jewelled pen.  The Transitional clip does not have the Esterbrook name: Both pens are very nearly the same size but have a very slightly different profile, the transitional pen is less tapered.  

Kenneth Parker had something of an obsession with flying.  In 1949 he produced an all metal version of the Parker 51 which he called a 'Flighter', the metal tubular shape bore a passing resemblance to an aeroplane fuselage. The name resonated with the pen buying public and all successive all steel bodied Parker pens were known as Flighters.  Strictly speaking, to be a Flighter, a pen must have been made by Parker, although it is not uncommon to see other makes referred to as such. The Parker 50 Falcon Flighter was probably the most 'plane-like' of the pens, it has...