PenHero Articles

The moment I spotted that black-and-cream carved barrel, my mind instantly jumped to those gorgeous Japanese pens with kamakura-bori decoration. The ones where intricate beautiful patterns are painstakingly carved into layered urushi lacquer, revealing stunning colors underneath. But nope. This beauty hails from… Rhode Island. Late 1930s. Made by the Welsh Manufacturing Company. And it’s one of the most eye-catching Welsh pens I’ve ever handled. Read the story about this inte …

The seventh limited edition in the Classic Pens CP series was a pair of fully engraved sterling silver fountain pens based on the Sailor 80. Called the CP7 Ocean Pens, the set featured two designs—one for the Atlantic and one for the Pacific—each with its own guilloché pattern to match the ocean theme. Classic Pens teamed up with Sailor Pen Company in Japan and R. Murelli, a specialty guillocheur workshop in Domont, France. They made 250 sets of two pens each, released in 200 …

The second limited edition in the Classic Pens CP series, the Sheaffer Crest CP2 Pushkin Pen, was released in 1993. The pen was a collaboration between Classic Pens, Sheaffer, and the Pushkin Prizes, a literary awards program for children in Ireland presided over by the Duchess of Abercorn, Alexandra Anastasia "Sacha" Hamilton (née Phillips; 1946–2018), a direct descendant of Aleksandr Pushkin (great-great-great-granddaughter via his daughter Natalya and Romanov lines). She was the …

The 1950s was a transitional time for the pen business. Where once the fountain pen was king, and commanded a fairly high price, the ballpoint pen would quickly make inroads and usurp the throne by the end of the decade. Continuous quality and cost improvements drove the rise of the ballpoint. Price and clean filling (no inky fingers) would become such market drivers that fountain pen manufacturers would once again re-think filling methods and price points to meet this new dynamic. Some would a …

Conklin saw itself as the innovator and catalyst for the move from eyedropper pens to self-filling pens because of Roy Conklin’s crescent filling system, based on his 1901 and 1903 patents. It was so simple to use. Press the raised crescent on the barrel to squeeze the ink sac inside, filling the pen. It became the first successful mass-produced self-filling pen and was in continuous production until the late 1920s. In that same timespan, the rest of the pen industry caught up and moved p …

My pursuit of more nice examples of Arnold ‘A’ clip fountain pens turned up this eye-catching celluloid on a slender pen with two cap bands. It’s all black with cream and blue streaks in a loose spiral pattern around the cap and barrel. Like meteors streaking across a dark night sky. The effect is as if cream and blue color was dripped on a spinning black background. It's not a color I've seen on any other pen brand. But it does appear on at least one other Arnold type. Read t …

There is a phenomenon where an interesting pen, pencil, or brand seemingly starts to appear more frequently and in unexpected places. It happens at pen shows, in antique stores, and browsing eBay or internet pen dealers. Without realizing it at first, there is a pen that had been on the mind! Recently this has been happening with Pilot Short telescoping fountain pens. More seem to turn up lately. In this case it wasn't just the pen, but the matching pencil, in the box! Read the story about this …

The striking visual impact of the first three élysée limited edition pens is attained through the use of a decorative technique similar to the ancient Chinese art of cloisonné. The company called this technique “Laque Intarsia” which could be literally taken as “lacquer marquetry” a riff on decorating objects with wood inlays. élysée is the company spelling for their brand name. Read the story about these interesting pens here: https:// …

It's not every day that a fairly ordinary pen becomes a hot collectible. The Waterman Reflex certainly meets the "ordinary" requirement, being the entry level pen in the Waterman line during the late 1990s. Many large pen manufacturers in the 1990s produced inexpensive pens that were sold in stationers, drug stores, and big box office supply stores. They were often sold on hang cards or in cheap paperboard boxes. The two versions of the Leonardo da Vinci pens caught the attention of collectors …

The FILCAO Sylvia is an homage. Twice. First, it’s the namesake of Sylvia Abrate, wife of the late Giovanni Abrate, the U. S. importer of FILCAO pens. FILCAO, or Fabbrica Italiana Lavorazione Cappucci Alluminio e Ottone, "Italian Factory for Machining Aluminum and Brass Caps," was a small Italian pen manufacturer established in 1963 by Franco Grisolia in Settimo Torinese, near Turin, Italy. Franco Grisolia led the company until it closed in 2012, and he passed away in 2015. In 2016, his s …