Today was 'big pens' day on Pentrace.

This one i wanted to share here. Image links below

We will start with the small image. Larger images to follow.

If you don't know what is special about these, i likely will not be able to convey all the nuances in short space. And, i'm too under-da-weather to go on in long space.

Shown below is a trio of pens. The middle pen in green/bronze is a quite large pen (considered Oversized by collectors) itself of high cachet and value- a Waterman Patrician in Moss Agate celluloid. Weirdly enough, at the ultra-hot Los Angeles Pen Show, i bought and sold that pen the same day. But, the big Patrician seems tiny compared to what bracket it.

Surrounding the Patrician- perhaps for the first time ever on one page (though i don't insist, and do realize that such a statement means less in the age of digital montage than it might once have meant) is a PAIR- yes a PAIR- of Waterman 420's.

The Waterman 20 was the giant pen of the waterman number series (really in the tens/teens/1x series of pens- the cone cap eyedroppers). Already a big pen in plain old black (worth $1-2k), it only growns in value as one moves to mottled and to cardinal red.

But to put an Overlay on one of these? Silver-on-Rubber puts a "4" before the model name, making such a pen a 420. 420's are amongst the highest cachet pens in vintage American pendom.

The Silver-on-Red on the left is mine. The Silver-on-Black at the right is not mine. Sigh. But, they look good together. Especially when dwarfing the "wee" $1600 oversized Waterman Patrician in the middle, which measures about 5.5"

small image shown below. Click for hte larger two images.

The medium image.

http://www.vacumania.com/penteech/waterman420pair33per.jpg

the large image.

http://www.vacumania.com/penteech/waterman420pair50per.jpg

Thanks for peeking

regards

david

Thanks for peeking. Bigger images to follow.

david

All three of those are really beautiful David. Is that a personalized monogram on your red and silver, (the G & C) or did that come on the pen? (Forgive my ignorance) The engraving is beautiful. Are you going to use it?!?! I bet the nib is niiiiiiiiiiice.......

I hope you feel over the weather soon Thanks for sharing a nice glimpse into the past.


Marina.

I like the pens and your photographs. Once I saw a black Waterman 20, with a modern silver overlay.

Hi.

The silver-red pen is monogrammed, though so fancily that i'm not wholly sure of the letters.

Red is fragile and the pen is rare. This is one of few in my collection i would not use.

Part of the charm of vintage pen photography is getting to handle lots of pens. During the last couple-three years i've photographed 5000 vintage pens at penshows, each digitally isolated subsequently so that i can mix and match any of the pens shot.

Fun stuff

david