Enough of this OLD wine, bring me some NEW wine

[jar]

Today there is a real comparison between wines and fountain pens, but it goes beyond color; and that is when we consider age. Just as with wines, most pens are best when young. Today's pens are great right from the day they are made and for most, they will not really improve much with age. Again, just as with wines there are the few that will simply get better with age.

We are lucky in the world of fountains pens though that there are far more examples of great old fountain pens then great old wines and the costs are oh so much lower.

Here are a few examples of fine older fountain pens, many that simply could not be made today.

Here are some Flat Topped pens, both modern and vintage. All are a joy to write with, reliable, and forgiving of a wide variety of inks.

Look at the third and fourth from the right. They are both Parker Duofolds. The black is a modern Parker Duofold Centennial while the other is the famous Big Red, the pen that introduced long lasting COLOR to the world of fountain pens. That particular pen dates to the late 1920s. The modern pen is a cartridge/converter pen while the 1920s pen uses a button fill mechanism and just a couple pumps fills it. Easy and a one hand operation.

Next let's look at five to nine from the right. The fifth pen from the right is a Sheaffer flattop also from the 1920s. It is a lever filler which was a Sheaffer innovation. The next two are modern Sheaffers patterned after the 1920s pens and they are Cartridge/converter pens. Both Parker and Sheaffer also created there own standards for cartridges and converters and even today they still use brand specific cartridges and converters.

The next two are also Sheaffers and just slightly smaller. Those two were Sheaffers second tier pens and only carried a 30 year warranty. There was also an even lower priced third tier that only carried a 25 year warranty. These pens really were built to last.

The final two return to Parker and are the Junior size but just slightly different. In 1930 Sheaffer introduced the Balance line (more on that later) which totally changed the look of pens and suddenly the flattops looked old fashioned. The last pen in the row is Parker's response and called the Streamlined model. Both ends were now tapered and the convex blind cap smoothed.

[Juantxo]

Amazing and beautiful pens. Too bad that now days it's all about volume, wash-and-wear, and disposable.

[Formulansx]

Speaking of wine......the Visconti Homo Sapiens red wine demonstrator is out. There's a dark age version with black trim available......ooooo baby!! If they make a bronze trim version, don't think I can resist! There's just too many awesome pens out there right now!! It's a conspiracy against my wallet!

[jar]

Originally Posted by Formulansx

Speaking of wine......the Visconti Homo Sapiens red wine demonstrator is out. There's a dark age version with black trim available......ooooo baby!! If they make a bronze trim version, don't think I can resist! There's just too many awesome pens out there right now!! It's a conspiracy against my wallet!

There may be some major changes coming at Visconti. Dante Del Vecchio has announced he will be leaving at the end of the year.

[Bisquitlips]

Originally Posted by jar

There may be some major changes coming at Visconti. Dante Del Vecchio has announced he will be leaving at the end of the year.

Haven't heard this! But if he goes it will be like Apple losing Jobs. Founder and creative designer.

Design will suffer.

[Formulansx]

Originally Posted by jar

There may be some major changes coming at Visconti. Dante Del Vecchio has announced he will be leaving at the end of the year.

Is he just retiring or did something fall apart??

[jar]

Originally Posted by Formulansx

Is he just retiring or did something fall apart??

All that is reported so far is that he sent a note pointing to internal conflicts with his partner.

[Formulansx]

Originally Posted by jar

All that is reported so far is that he sent a note pointing to internal conflicts with his partner.

Eeeee that's not good. Hopefully they can resolve their issues. There kind of has been a Jekyll and Hyde design philosophy over the years with Visconti pen mechanics I've noticed. I wonder if this is the pinnacle of their disagreement.

[jar]

Back to fountain pens; new and old, here are a pair of Sheaffer fountain pens. The finish is called Ebonized Pearl and it is a transparent celluloid that has mother of pearl pieces embedded. The Ebonized Pearl finish was introduced in 1934 and only continued until 1939.

The first is a smaller non-white dot plunger filler. Note that the celluloid is still clear and transparent even though the pen is will over three quarters of a century old.

Next is a slimmer full size lever fill. Since the body of the lever fill pens contains a rubber sac we don't see the transparency.

Together these two old pens still look as amazing as they did back before WWII.