The Ark of Pens

Today we have a Guest Post from a friend of the blog, R.B. Lemberg! It’s been a long while since T.G.S. has featured a guest post, and I’ve been looking to bring in some new voices and hope to make this a semi-regular event. Enjoy!

In The Cultures of Collecting, editors Elsner and Cardinal describe the biblical Noah as the first collector. “Adam had given names to the animals, but it fell to Noah to collect them… Menaced by a Flood, one has to act swiftly. Anything overlooked will be lost forever: between including and excluding there can be no half- measures. The collection is the unique bastion against the deluge of time.” (Elsner and Cardinal 1994:1)

It took a global crisis to make me a collector of pens.

In 2020, shuttered in my room and yet overloaded with responsibilities of teaching, leadership, caregiving, and generative work, I stepped into the world of fountain pens for respite. It wasn’t my first pen venture; I learned about writing with dip pens and fountain pens in Soviet elementary school. I was a clumsy child and the pens were of poor quality; I hated every moment of it. Later, in graduate school in the US, I happily used a single Pilot Falcon. I put it aside after getting my doctorate, and switched to Pilot V5s; but something shifted during the pandemic. I think this describes many people.

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Edison Menlo (top) and Kaweco Liliput (bottom).

I remember 2020 and 2021 as joyful years for pens. Everything else was ash and fear, but pens were a happy creative outlet, and many new people joined the hobby. I certainly did not think about myself as a stationery collector before the pandemic, but I found myself reading fountain pen books and blogs and watching instructional videos. In a quest after that special magic of a perfectly tuned nib touching paper, I tried a whole lot of pens. I sent a few pens to Mark Bacas for a grind. I talked about fountain pens endlessly. By the end of 2021, I figured out what I liked, and began curating.

I wasn’t collecting pens to save them from the deluge of time, and these days I’m not sure if I am a collector at all. I like to use my pens, but I also enjoy simply lining them up; I live for an aesthetically pleasing pen tray. There’s certainly a central theme to my collecting. I love Italian pens. I gravitate towards stubs and italic nibs, as well as the sometimes-maligned European mediums. The colors and textures of pens in my tray reassure me that beauty persists beyond the devastation of wars and pandemics, beyond market pressures and too-rapid technological advances. Fiddling with my pens reminds me that history is a human story. We value not just what’s the latest and fastest and flashiest; my pens promise and deliver a contemplative world.

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As a curator, I am infinitely curious about other people’s practices. Over the last three years, I read blogs and talked to folks online and offline about managing fountain pen collections. Some never give anything up – once the pen enters a collection, it is there to stay, whether used frequently or not. In the story of the flood, only a single raven (and later: a single dove) ever left the Ark. Others rotate through pens, frequently buying and selling; a prime example of this approach is the fascinating UK Fountain Pens blog. Many people are somewhere in the middle  - they keep most or many of their pens, and let some go. Some folks call their pens a collection, others an accumulation. I call mine the gathering. Sometimes I think my pens are alive – not just items on display, but friends who hang out with me, and help me get words down on page in a way that nurtures my soul.

Sometimes, pens leave the gathering. They’ve had enough of my party. :) Others are here to stay.

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Today’s Highlights

Onoto Scholar in Mandarin Yellow. I got this one from Onoto directly for a great introductory price in early 2022; the nib in it right now is a special order stub, I believe ground for Onoto by John Sorowka.

Leonardo Momento Magico in Brooks Bohemian Twilight. This one was a birthday present from Limited Pens Korea. I swapped the steel Medium it arrived with for the excellent Franklin Christoph M Sig – one of the best nib grinds I’ve tried so far (thank you, Audrey!) It is an incredibly versatile and joyful pen – I love the ink window and the fact that the nib unit unscrews for cleaning, making it excellent for shimmers.

Aurora Optima Viola with a Factory Stub. I got it for an amazing price on Fountain Pen Day. This also was subsidized by birthday moneys. I wanted to try an Aurora, and this one is superb and easily one of my favorite pens ever.

What are some of your fountain pen standouts? Do you curate, and if so, what is your approach?

R.B. Lemberg (they/them) is a queer, neurodivergent academic and writer of speculative fiction. They are the author of The Unbalancing (2022), The Four Profound Weaves (2020), and other books. You can find them on their website http://rblemberg.net, on their Instagram as @rblemberg, and on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/rblemberg

Organizing A Pen Collection: Pulling It All Together

Many thanks to all of you who wrote in or commented in response to Wednesday’s post, in which I talked about the “struggles” in managing a larger pen collection and ensuring that all pens get used. The comments were varied, ranging from “I don’t worry about it at all and keep as many pens inked as I like” to descriptions of sophisticated spreadsheets or database systems programmed to track which pens and inks haven’t been used lately and recommend a fresh pairing. I thought I’d share some of the top recommendations:

1. Fountain Pen Companion. By far the most popular recommendation I received for managing a pen collection was Fountain Pen Companion, which is not only a sophisticated online database for tracking your pens, inks, and usage, but a community with 800+ registered users. FPC features an ink “leaderboard” with collection rankings by bottles, colors, samples, and brands, and can serve as a platform to trade ink samples. I registered for Fountain Pen Companion last year, but never got around to entering my pen and ink collection into the system. That will change soon. (I’m registered under “GentlemanStationer".)

2. Figboot on Pens Spreadsheet. Second to Fountain Pen Companion was David’s “EDC Log” spreadsheet that he developed and generously released to the community several years ago. The “EDC Log” functions similarly to Fountain Pen Companion, only offline in an excel file that will automatically track your most-used pens and inks.

3. Filemaker Pro and Other Database Software. Several readers described how they built their own custom pen and ink databases that include pictures, purchase details, and usage history, using Filemaker or other database software. I don’t have the knowledge or technical skill to build one of these myself, and my experience with database tools is limited, so I can’t offer much guidance here but if you’re looking for your own customized collection management solution, building a database or your own custom excel template is likely the way to go.

4. “Currently Inked” Lists and Notebooks. Most of us started here, and many of us never abandon the tried and true “Currently Inked” list, kept on an index card, in a notebook, or logged in a dedicated, special-purpose notebook like Ink Journal. Personally, I keep a Reporter’s Style Notebook that (theoretically) shows all of the pens and inks I currently have in rotation, though I often forget to log them. These lists sit on my desk and are intended to serve as a quick reference in case I forget which shade of blue is in which pen, and they don’t get saved long-term. I may also start keeping a running list of pen-and-ink pairings in my Traveler’s Notebook to retain for posterity.

5. No System at All. Many of you were adamant that forcing an organizational system on pens and inks would drain the fun from the hobby, and I totally get that. For me personally (since I’m a nerd), part of the fun of collecting, whether it be pens, books, coins, stamps, music, etc., lies in the selection and curation process, but it’s not for everyone.

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It’s not just my pen collection that I’m sorting through. I recently received my custom “Ex Libris” stamp in the mail and have begun the process of marking all the “keeper” books in my home library.

So why am I so hung up on this? I think it stems from the fact that I’ve been spending so much time at home and noticing how much unused stuff I have lying around, including different “collections” I’ve accumulated over the years. But for things to truly be considered a “collection,” I’ve always subscribed to the view that there needs to be some basic level of curation or organization. Otherwise it just becomes clutter. As I mentioned, that curation process is part of what I’ve traditionally enjoyed about my hobbies, and I think some of the “hobby burnout” I’ve been experiencing is due to the fact that I’ve let that aspect get away from me. I get even less enjoyment when the disorganization gets to a point where it prevents me from actually using what I have. This year, a major goal of mine is to sort through my various accumulations, organize and keep what I love into actual collections, and pass along anything that needs a new home.

Mini-Collections and Under-appreciated Pens: The Parker Sonnet

I’m making more of an effort to sort and organize my pen collection these days. After a decade in the hobby, I’ve accumulated a lot, with varying degrees of intention. While I’m far from a single-purpose collector - for example, I don’t have a specific pen or brand that I collect exclusively - I do have several major themes around which I’ve build an eclectic group of pens. I’ve written about a few of these before: I have a soft spot for “near-vintage” Waterman, as well as celluloid pens in general. Neither is a particularly surprising focus for someone seriously into fountain pens, and wouldn’t appear out of place at a pen show or meetup. What is surprising, however, even to me, is the extent to which I’ve built up “mini collections” of under-appreciated pens that don’t attract much attention as everyday writers, much less the focus of collections. One such pen is the Parker Sonnet.

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I currently only have three Sonnets in my personal collection, though I’ve owned many more. Why do I like this pen so much? For one thing, I consider the Parker Sonnet to be a modern classic. It’s been around for decades now, and the shape recalls the vintage Parker Vacumatic Majors from the 1930s. Vintage Vacumatics are among the most comfortable pens to write with - they fit the hand well when posted, as does the modern Sonnet. While Parker (rightfully) has taken flack over the years for allowing quality control to slide, a properly tuned Sonnet nib makes for an exceptional everyday writer, and the most recent Sonnets I’ve acquired have written perfectly out of the box. (I will note that these have been the gold-nib versions. I cannot speak to the steel.)

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Sometimes a brand’s heritage isn’t immediately obvious. Parker has never “reissued” the Vacumatic - at least not to my knowledge - but a similar writing experience lives on in the Sonnet.

Building on the piece I wrote last week, which offered my first impressions of Parker’s recently released “Next Generation” Parker 51, I do believe that the level of vitriol directed at the modern Parker Pen Company is unwarranted and unfair. Sure, much of it can be written off as your typical internet snark, but even setting that aside, people really seem to relish hating Parker, and hold it to a much higher standard than other companies. For example, I’ve not found Parker nibs to be less reliable than those released by Visconti, which often charges twice as much money. A Parker Sonnet with a gold nib will run you anywhere from $250-400, with the higher end of that price range covering the chiseled sterling silver models. Even if you factor in $20-25 for a nib tuning, I have a hard time viewing the Sonnet as a bad value, especially given that you can often find them on sale or the secondary market. Hunting Sonnets at pen shows can be especially rewarding, as many people pass them up in favor of trendier pens and vendors are often willing to unload them at a discount. (Side Note: A few years ago, I criticized Parker for trying to push up the retail price of the Sonnet to its current level. Given the degree to which pen prices have risen industry-wide over the past five years, this was hasty and probably unfair. A gold nib Sonnet is less expensive than many steel-nib pens these days.)

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Currently, the Parker Sonnets in my collection include two pens from the now-discontinued “Great Expectations” special edition series: the “Subtle Big Red,” which I previously reviewed, and another matte black version which I believe was called “Secret Shell Black.” Just recently I also added the “SE18 Journey Blue” pen to my collection, which was the last one in stock at Appelboom and seems like it will make a nice companion to my Traveler’s Notebook. The extra fine 18k nib is sublime.

If I must say so, the blue “Journey” looks good on the blue Traveler’s Notebook!

I’m interested in hearing more about this concept of “mini-collections.” Do you all have any side interests apart from your primary focus (if you collect at all)? In addition to the Sonnets, I have managed to get my hands on all of the special Lamy 2000 releases (with the exception of the red one that cost like $18,000), most of the Lamy Studio special releases, and a handful of Leonardo Momento Zero Grandes. The fascinating part about this for me, personally, is that it was largely unintentional, and as I focus on paring down my pens going forward, I may see what happens if I do spend some time focusing more on the “collecting” aspect of the hobby and building out some of these interests. (While still using my pens, of course!)

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The SE18 “Journey” edition spoke to me because I have a degree in international relations/foreign service, so while the etching might be considered superfluous or even “too busy” to some, I like it.

Thoughts on Purchasing Expensive Pens (or Any Luxury Item)

I’ve been collecting notes and thoughts on this topic for a while now, as I’ve noticed my own acquisitions starting to trend in the direction of purchasing fewer-but-nicer pens, and as more brands seem to be directing significant manufacturing and marketing efforts towards high-end pens and limited editions. Honestly, there are now so many limited/special/store editions on the market that it’s easy to get confused and caught up in FOMO, spend a lot of money, and wind up with an extremely expensive pen that doesn’t meet your needs or isn’t as great as the “hype” made it seem. Believe me, I’ve been there. So I thought it might be helpful to write a piece on my own thought process when acquiring pens - especially expensive high-end pens - and the various considerations and questions that I ask myself as I evaluate whether a prospective purchase is “worth it.”

Before we start, I need to preface this discussion with an acknowledgement that what constitutes an “expensive” or “high-end” pen is subjective, and necessarily changes from person to person. A $50 pen is extremely expensive to some people, and I’m not necessarily talking about financial means. Some people simply prefer a functional daily writer and don’t want to have any more money than absolutely necessary locked up in a writing instrument they might lose. With that understood, I don’t think the analysis changes significantly based on where you draw the line on what’s “expensive” or “high-end.” Hopefully this article has something helpful for everyone.

My own baseline for what I consider a “very expensive” pen is roughly $500. Some might set the baseline even lower, and there’s definitely an argument for that. I chose $500 because this price point captures most brands’ non-limited or standard edition “workhorse” pens such as the Pelikan M800/M600, Aurora 88, Montblanc 146, Sailor Professional Gear, Pilot Custom 823, and even some Conids. (While the MSRP on some of these pens may be greater than $500, you can usually find them below that, either by purchasing on sale or with a discount code, or by acquiring them secondhand in barely used, or even mint, condition.) Once you get past this baseline price point, in my opinion you are definitely paying for more than functional hardware - i.e., a gold nib, build quality, filling system - and get into more subjective forms of “value” like artistry and branding. I think hard before purchasing above this baseline price point, and if I do, there has to be a compelling case. I use my pens, so I’m not a pure collector in the sense that my primary focus is on making sure the pens do not depreciate in value for later appraisal or resale. I may buy something because I view it as a “work of art,” but it’s a functional piece of art that I still intend to put to good use as a writing instrument.

Leonardo Officina Italiana makes some of my favorite limited and special edition pens currently on the market. They’re all handmade, and the runs truly are limited - especially those in rare celluloids.

First Consideration: What Exactly Am I Paying For, and Why Am I Spending this Money?

I firmly believe that you don’t need to spend more than $65, tops, to get a reliable fountain pen to use as a daily writer. For $200 or less, you can purchase what I consider one of the best-designed fountain pens ever made, the Lamy 2000, which is my own “desert island” writing instrument. As I mentioned above, once you pass a certain price point, you stop paying for additional functionality and get into things like design, artistry, and, yes, branding and hype. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But one thing I do try to do when contemplating an expensive acquisition is figure out exactly what I’m paying for and why I’m fine with paying it. For example, a $600 Nakaya is not $600 because it’s a “better” pen than a $150 Platinum 3776 in terms of functionality. For the most part, they write similarly because they feature the same nib, and the Platinum might actually be a “better” choice for most people to take to work everyday because it posts and the pen is lightweight. The Nakaya, however, is a vehicle to showcase artistry, namely the Japanese tradition of Urushi lacquer work and other traditional pen designs. Do I really like the design of this particular Nakaya, or is this a FOMO-driven acquisition influenced by online discussions and/or podcasts? Put another way, do I like this pen and want one because “other people” are telling me I should have one in my collection?

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Two limited edition fountain pens that I’m glad I purchased. On the left is my Delta Fusion 82 in “Pompeii” celluloid, and on the right is the Leonardo Momento Zero “Maestro” in discontinued Omas Burkina celluloid. I grabbed both of these immediately, knowing they really were limited and won’t last.

Second Consideration: Is this “Limited” or “Special” Edition Really That Unique?

When considering the purchase of a “limited” pen, I try to remember to ask myself how “limited” or “special” the pen actually is. In my opinion, these two marketing taglines are overused. Case-in-point: I own a couple of Montblanc Writers Edition fountain pens, which retail for nearly $1000. I’m a Montblanc fan, and generally appreciate the brand’s design and build quality, but is a run of 16,000 fountain pens really limited enough to qualify for the “limited edition” designation, and command the sort of price being asked?

In my opinion, probably not. Older Writers Edition fountain pens, like the Hemingway and Agatha Christie, command higher prices on the secondary market because Montblanc made fewer of these pens, and they’re difficult to locate. That’s exactly what some pure collectors want to see - appreciation in the value of the pen due to scarcity. But it’s hard to see a run of 16,000+ pens that cost $1000 apiece appreciating in value anytime soon, which is why you can find later Writers Editions like Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Friedrich Schiller, etc. for much less than the original retail, sometimes still NIB (“New in Box”). If you’re a user, like me, that’s not a bad thing at all, which brings me to the third consideration….

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On the other hand, Pelikan limited and special edition fountain pens tend to linger, like the M101N pictured here, and you can get extremely good deals towards the end of the year….

Third Consideration: How Badly Do I Want This Pen Now, and Should I Wait for a Price Drop?

For the past couple of years, I have made 90% of my pen acquisitions in November, December, and January, which is when most retailers run inventory clearance sales and holiday promotions, starting with Fountain Pen Day sales and running through the post-New Year’s clearance events. At the top of the list for retailers to clear out are those “limited” and “special” edition pens that haven’t sold over the past year or two - after all, they need to make room for the next year’s releases that start shipping in February and March - and if you wait patiently enough you can often find the “older” pens discounted as much as 60%, or even more once you factor in holiday coupon codes that are always floating around. With respect to the Montblanc Writers edition pens noted above, I found two of them at around 70% of what they originally cost, and was able to use a 20% off Black Friday coupon to get the price down even further. In short, if you can resist the FOMO, patience can pay off. If a limited edition isn’t really “limited,” just wait for a while, and I suspect you’ll enjoy that pen all the more having paid half the original purchase price.

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Aurora limited and special editions typically remain available for at least a year or so. I waited a year for the Aurora 88 Sigaro Blu to go on sale and got a slightly better price than I would have had I purchased it upon release.

Final Thoughts

Choosing a pen is a uniquely personal experience, and as you gain experience, you’ll develop your own set of considerations, or even rules, that you take into account when building your collection or accumulation. I do hope this piece is helpful. I’ve made my share of mistakes in my decade or so in the pen hobby, and the ones that always burn the most are when I gave into the FOMO and purchased something expensive that I either didn’t really like it or could have purchased a year later for half the money. On the flip side, I’ve also missed out on some truly limited releases because I dawdled, but I tend to regret those instances less because there is always going to be something else to take its place. Trust me on this one.

Happy holidays, everyone! After tomorrow’s “Links” post, I’m signing off until after the New Year, when I’ll be back with all sorts of new things in store for 2020 and the next decade!