PenHero Articles

Andreas Lambrou and Keith G. Brown founded Classic Pens Limited in England in 1987. Passionate about pens, they set out to create truly exclusive fountain pens by collaborating with leading pen companies on new limited edition models. Their first pen, developed with Sheaffer and France’s R. Murelli R.S.A.R.L., a specialty guilloché workshop in Domont (Val-d'Oise), France, was released in 1990 and was based on the sterling silver Sheaffer Targa. Read the story about these interestin …

In a gutsy move, Mentmore copied several design elements of the Waterman Patrician and introduced the Platignum Supreme in 1931 as a low cost competitor. A full-color December 1931 Platignum advertisement in the Strand Magazine and a page from the Waterman 1933 catalog reveal clear parallels. The most striking is the wide lattice cap band with its repeating vertical dot-dash-dot motif—the very pattern shown on Waterman’s design patent. But this Platignum Supreme is missing that visu …

The Imperial Pen and Pencil Company of Nassau, New York was founded by Frank Feldman, who ran the company until it closed in 1956. Not content to make merely ordinary fountain pens, the Imperial Pen and Pencil Company set out to solve a problem that may never have existed. How often did a fountain-pen user wish for a spare nib of a different grade so they could switch from medium-fine to medium-broad writing on the spot? Why not store a spare nib unit in a chamber at the end of the barrel, alwa …

There are three versions of the Venus President, each featuring a 14-karat gold nib. The second version (Mark 2, the focus of this article) first appeared in a retailer advertisement using Venus company graphics in the December 11, 1945 San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas). The main change from the Mark 1 was that now both the cap and barrel were striped celluloid in green, blue, red, or brown. Read the story about these interesting pens here: https://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Venus/VenusPre …

Vertical stripes became popular in the 1940s, appearing on pens from nearly every company. Sheaffer had already used them in the 1930s on the Balance, and some other companies introduced some striped models in the late 1930s, but by the early 1940s the pattern showed up more frequently: on the new Parker Duofold, Eversharp Skyline, and models from Conklin, Moore, Eclipse, Wearever, and many others. Venus joined the trend, applying vertical stripes to its Autograph and President pens, both intro …

In the 1936 catalog, the Conklin All American line was essentially a downgraded version of Conklin’s “General” series. The new sacless vacuum-filling models, though priced for the moderate market, featured fit and finish comparable to higher-end Conklin pens of the same year. They were offered with attractive snakeskin-patterned celluloid in three colors—Reptilian Pearl-Gray, Reptilian Gold-Green Vein, and Reptilian Foliage-Red Vein—prized by collectors today. The …

The Waterford Kilbarry line was a mainstay of the Waterford pen brand. It featured a gently streamlined cylindrical fountain pen, capped rollerball, and twist-action ballpoint. The base pen was made with all with brass caps and barrels which were then given a barleycorn guilloche engraving. The brass base was chrome-plated and then overlaid with transparent lacquer in red, blue, black, amber, and Emerald Isle green. The Kilbarry Edge line, launched in 2009 and was available through 2013, was a …

The Classic Pens CP5 Celebration Pens is the fifth limited edition in the Classic Pens CP series, and one of six two pen editions. Produced in 1999 through a collaboration between Classic Pens, the Parker Pen Company, and the R. Murelli R.S.A.R.L. an independent, specialty guillocheur company in Domont (Val-d'Oise), France. The edition pays homage to the iconic Parker Duofold. The series celebrates both the original 1920s Duofold and its modern counterpart by offering two complementary versions …

The Waterford Marquis Arista Prism line was a clear “one of these things is not like the other” moment for the brand when it was introduced in 2008. The Marquis Arista Prism didn't seem to fit into the Waterford line at the time and had a short life. Made of lightweight, colorful resins that would be difficult to engrave or personalize, and priced similarly to the Marquis Claria line, the Arista Prism felt completely out of place. Even so, they are fun pens and hard to find now. Rea …

The Waterford Pallas line launched in 2006 with two colors— Translucent Black and Translucent Ocean Blue—featuring platinum-plated trim. Each model included a medium-nib fountain pen, a capped rollerball, and a twist-action ballpoint. Waterford pens were produced under license by Hampton-Haddon Marketing Corp. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from the mid-1990s to the late 2010s. The company was founded in 1977 by Stephen Zipf and the late David Peters and specialized in private-label …