Dear PenLovers,

About 3 years ago I bought here in Poland Koh-I-Noor pencil which however
wasn't 'this' yellow (or not), simple Koh-I-Noor pencil probably the best
known on the World. It was similar (but not the same) to the Pelikan pencils
from lat 30'. I felt in love with the clip and the line. But to the point
... I was recently lucky to purchase three fountain pens of this almost
unknown (as a fountain pen manufacturer) company. These three are from
20'-30' period and I know L&C Hardtmuth will be an important part of my
collection. Two of them (sterling and green marble) are signed simply L&C
Hardtmuth, a black with incredible and beautiful huge ink-view is Koh-I-Noor
L&C Hardtmuth. I also find another one i a web, from 40's as it is more
'vacumatic's' in design. On the other hand a friend of mine, polish
collector told me he saw Hardtmuth's eyedropper dated c. 1910-1920. So I
presume Hardtmuth was in fountain pen business almost 40 years, and maybe
more. Probably it was only a small part of production and probably only in
one of their many plants located in many countries but .....
I've tried to find something about Hardtmuth f.pens manufacture but in vain.
Nothing in all my books - only the new Chronicle of The Fountain Pen
mentioned about this company but in connection with L.E Waterman (Hardtmuth
in London was distributor of Waterman's pens - 1900 than in 1912 the
contract was signed for worldwide distribution excluding North and South
America - the cooperation took their end at 1914 together with I WW and
according to the Thomas De LaRue marketing campaign against Hardtmuth).
I wonder if there is something in Andreas Lambrou's "F.P of the World" -
this is the only "bible" I don't have yet. I would appreciate information.



I found many information about the Hardtmuth family and their pencil
business but nothing about fountain pens. How could it possible? The Company
that is in writing business since 1790!! and operate till now. Really great
history which I would like to research more and will be very grateful for
any information esp. connected with fountain pen production.
As to the pens alone I am really impressed of its quality which in my
opinion are comparable with the best companies.
Sterling pen reminds me a little Waterman's 452 1/2 V Sheraton though is
bigger and with a clip. Think it's the same period. As to other 2 pens. Both
are similar to Pelikan 101N but yet different. The green marble is a plastic
button-filler, the black one - really impressive pen - made from celluloid
with bhr end cap. This is a piston filler with incredible see-through barrel
in red with black veins. Nibs in all three pens are 14K flexible and all are
signed L&C Hardtmuth, in black also Koh-I-Noor. I think this one is a "top"
pen, it will be natural consequence to use Koh-I-Noor mark for top quality
product as they did on pencils.



If anyone from you know anything about Hardtmuth fountain pen manufacture,
have ads, catalogs or are happy to have pens please contact me.
Thank you very much in advance and happy Philly hunting, sales and all the
best at all.
My very best regards,
Marta

Nice pens. Really nice. I knew their technical pens well - used them often, but didn't know of their fountain pens.

Thanks for the photos.

Gerry

One (on the middle picture) is a Pelikan, just to show similarity. Thank you Gerry for a kind words.
Marta

I don't think Hardtmuth ever made pens on their own. Their size and connections allowed them to have other companies make pens to their specifications, instead. I've spent much less time pen-hunting in central Europe than I have in the UK, which is probably why most of the Hardtmuth pens I've had or seen appeared to be Waterman products from the eyedropper era.

Thank you David,

This is an idea that would explain much - I've never came across any of their ad of fountain pens, on the contrary to the pencils but ... even if the sterling one might be considered as 'eyedropper era' and a little similar to the Waterman's sterling lines, the next two examples are more 'german' and at least 15 years older... and the gold, really highest quality nibs, why they took so many efforts to 'order' high quality pens without a big advertising campaign to sell them? It wasn't a small company, it had their plants in Czech, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Poland, France and from 1919 in USA. They could afford promote fountain pens.
I found only one fountain pen patent dated to the 1939 and it's for a safety pen!!! and it's for Hardtmuth Germany.
It's really curious.
Anyway, I will keep looking and still much appreciated your opinions and facts.

My best,
Marta

The news is I've just purchased a small catalog of Hardtmuth's fountain pens from around 30's. It's in german so I suppose 'The Bleistift Fabrik" in Germany was this only one that made or assemble fountain pens. I will post this catalog when it arrive.