How Did The Use Of Fountain Pens In The Past Differ From How We Use Them Today?

[andreasn]

The title pretty much says it all. I have searched for information on google on how the use of fountain pens in the past differed from modern usage. I have found nothing. So I thought It would be a good time to ask on here.

[Pickwick]

Having used pen and ink these past 70 years, the fountain pen was viewed in my generation purely as a useful portable writing instrument, the same as we regard the ball point pen today. To my knowledge, the only reason anyone would purchase a fountain would be a replacement for one either lost or no longer working.

 

Bearing in mind the vast majority of fountain pens manufactured and purchased were very cheap, they are now termed as 'Third Tier Pens', for example Esterbrooks, the high quality expensive fountain were presented as gifts, for commendations, commemorations or retirement.

 

Reading threads on FPN it appears that many members enjoy collecting fountain pens. So the use differs probably now a hobby for many, and there are other members who enjoy using them as writing instruments, because there is no doubt fountain and dip pens do inspire expressive thoughts.

[kirchh]

Bearing in mind the vast majority of fountain pens manufactured and purchased were very cheap, they are now termed as 'Third Tier Pens', for example Esterbrooks, the high quality expensive fountain were presented as gifts, for commendations, commemorations or retirement.

I disagree completely with this. Aside from the mischaracterization of Esterbrooks as third-tier pens, all the evidence I have seen is that first-tier pens were sold in huge numbers and most were purchased for personal use.

 

--Daniel

Edited May 22, 2015 by kirchh

[Ron Z]

the vast majority of fountain pens manufactured and purchased were very cheap..... the high quality expensive fountain were presented as gifts, for commendations, commemorations or retirement.

 

I would challenge this. The shear numbers of first tier pens by Sheaffer, Waterman, Parker, Wahl and others that are still in circulation say that this can not be true. For pens like Presidential 51s, gold Coronets, Patricians and such, maybe. But the big four would not have been so big if they depended on presentations, gifts and all that for their sales. The reason that Parker went into producing the Duofold Sr was because people had money and would spend it on an expensive pen. Yes, there were a lot of 3rd tier pens, but they were not the vast majority.

 

Tom Zoss has said that the people were as aware of changes in pen technology as we are in computer and cell phones today. The patent wars were as lively as the ones between Samsung and Apple. Just as we like nice phones and will stretch to pay for them, so people would stretch to buy a nice pen.

[jar]

One big difference I have noticed involves marketing. When I was growing up fountain pen ads were ubiquitous, found in most magazines, newspapers, on counters and windows of jewelery, clothing, department and drug stores The counters at every bank and post office had dip pens to allow folk to fill out forms.. You simply could not avoid exposure to fountain pens.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

I'm certainly not an eye witness to change of use over time.

 

My elders, especially paternal Grandfather and Great Aunts, used FPs as dedicated writing tools, much as described by Member Pickwick.

 

It seems likely some people collected fountain pens, but I suspect their collection was not for daily utilitarian use - much as a items in a coin collection would not be used for milk money.

 

As for presentation pens, once my family saw that I used and liked my first FP, I was gifted with rather high-end pens to mark significant academic achievements. No one expressed dismay that I put those pens to use.

 

From what I've seen (in the wild) some FP users keep with the 'daily writer' tradition or have multiple FPs to hand, yet others seem to treat an FP as a personal accessory - pen in pocket, but hands on an electronic device. Otherwise, I reckon many FP users dedicate their pens to personal writing. And a tip of the hat to the collectors!

 

A recent Topic 'How Did People Change Inks In The Past?' may shed some light on things: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/288483-how-did-people-change-inks-in-the-past/?p=3326217

 

As ever, I look forward to learning from other Members' experience and opinions.

 

Bye,

S1

Edited May 23, 2015 by Sandy1

[Pickwick]

Esterbrook concentrated on the cheap end of the market. That is not to say their quality was poor.They did make a durable good quality fountain pen which is evident with the prolific number stil available I apologize for the reaction I caused. I had no intention of being derogatory

Over the years I've owned a number of Esterbrooks, and still write with one on a regular basis. However one cannot put them in the same category with Waterman, Sheaffer, et al.

[nickmazur]

I remember distinctly our local green grocer using a fountain pen to calculate your total and change owed. I was often in awe with her ability to write fast and count fast. That was in the early 1980s, so not that long ago.

 

One really popular use of fountain pens (and dip pens) was in schools.

[rwilsonedn]

Without sales records it is quite difficult to infer how many pens each brand sold. Issues like the probability that a disused cheap pen would be thrown away while a disused expensive pen would be kept in the back of a drawer, and the likelihood that a really nice or emotionally important pen would be passed down to the next generation all make it tricky to estimate the original population of pens from the stock available today.

I do have a couple of data points. I have read that Wearever made more fountain pens than any other company, and I've never seen that claim disputed. And when I cruise junk--er--antique stores where sellers clearly know little or nothing about fountain pens, the third-tier pens outnumber the first-tier pens by a large factor--maybe five to one. Again, this does not represent a random sample of pens that were in use in the 1920s-1950s: it could be biased by any number of things, including sellers pulling expensive-looking pens out for sale on eBay and sending the dingy-looking ones to the shop.

ron

[peterg]

Totally agree with Pickwick. The fountain pen was an efficient method for communicating when that meant the written word. Now it is a prestige novelty.

 

After the inital novelty the fountain pen became a work horse just like the automobile. The vast majority of pens would have been third, fourth or fifth tier products which would have been used and then thrown away. I got through three or four cheap steel nib pens at school and then didn't buy another for twenty years

 

If you go to a classic car show you could be forgiven for thinking that half the world drove luxury cars in the 1930's. Same with pens. In England the Platignum was the largest selling pen by volume. A cheap, steel nib pen. Now they are rare (but equally unloved), except for those made in attractive celluloids. I'm sure the same applied in the US. What happened to all your third and fourth tier manufacturer's pens?

 

End of rant.

[welch]

I agree, also, with Pickwick, although I'd call the Esterbrook a "second tier" pen.

 

Main point: the fountain pen was the main way to write something that would last. People also used pencils, wood pencils, but at some point (third or fou rth grade in the US?) schools insisted that students use pens. Fountain pens were portable, as long as you wrote on a desk in a room. The FP carried its own ink supply.

 

First tier pens would have been too expensive for most people except as special gifts. When my Dad was assigned to an aircraft carrier in the Pacific, Mom saved and got him a Vacumatic. A big deal. They had graduated from high school in 1940 and 1941. Both used "third tier" pens, and both had stories of classmates who had pen sacs burst in their pocket. Dad, who was a US Navy "aviation machinist's mate" and "plane captain", even told stories of friends who forgot to remove their fountain pen before taking a test ride in the rear seat of a dive bomber. Clearly, a "third tier" pen. At sea, Dad kept his pen in his locker. Wrote letters home.

 

In the late '50s, we bought our school supplies at the local drug store and 5&10's. I remember Wearever ballpoints, Sheaffer "school pens", but never saw a Snorkel or a P51 or P-61 (except that Sheaffer advertised on TV). Too expensive. People bought them at the pen counter of the local department store.

 

Why are so many high-end pens still available?

 

My guess: people threw out their cheapo pens in the late '50s, as sacs gave out, and as ballpoints became more reliable and less expensive. Someone with the money to own a P-51 kept it. When ink became scarce, they might have tossed it to the back of a drawer as they switched to a Papermate ballpoint, but they kept the pen. Further, Parker 51's, Esties, and pre-1950's Wearevers were tough pens. We see more because they last. Probably see so many Skylines because Eversharp sold so many, but that's a wild guess.

 

Example: I bought a super-short Eversharp 5th Avenue (a "tuckie"?) that had belonged to a feed salesman. He drove the Shenandoah Valley with a bottle on ink, his order book, and this pen. When I got it, the "estate seller though it was a Parker pen, since he had carried a bottle of Quink. The sac was shot. My hunch: he used it until the sac failed (mid-70's Quink, so let's guess 20 years), then got a ballpoint.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the interesting insights.

 

Perhaps people continued to use pencils for anything that didn't require ink. (I cannot image using a pencil as a daily writer, but that's just me.)

 

Perhaps the lower-tier pens were made to last no longer than the life expectancy of the sac - they weren't worth re-sac'ing. (Even though footwear went to cobblers for new heels & soles, garments went to tailors & seamstresses for repair, and watchmakers kept things ticking along.)

 

Perhaps the upper-tier pens were designed to be long lasting and repairable, hence were worth re-sac'ing. The sunk cost of such a pen could be recovered in the longer term.

 

It seems that when sac-based pens were overtaken by the c/c fillers people might have expected their pens to be longer lasting.

 

Oh, one wee thing I'd like to know (curiosity strikes!) is if there was such a gap in ink price per unit volume between cartridges and bottles back in the day. Otherwise pens such as the Sheaffer 'school pen', which only uses cartridges, would've been an expensive proposition over time.

 

Hmmm...

 

Bye,

S1

Edited May 27, 2015 by Sandy1

[bardharlock]

Frankly, the only difference in usage was how prevalent fountain pens were to how prevalent they are not now. There were fancy pens then, just as there are fancy pens now. Some people collected or bought fancy items for prestige, just as they do now. You see the same in pipes, watches, cars, etc. Many of us write, many of us collect, many of us do both. If a fountain pen, even a third tier fountain pen, was considered a luxury item to someone in the past, they likely wrote in pencil more often. Just as some of us now will make a quick note or do daily unimportant writing with something other than a fountain pen while saving "important" writing for our fountain pens.

[PaperDarts]

My parents and grandparents used fountain pens or pencils, depending on the writing task. They were everyday utilitarian objects and available everywhere - I remember that my first FP (required for school in Grade 3) came from a tiny stationery shelf in our local general store in the nearby small village (about 500 people). The only special FP I remember was one belonging to my aunt - no idea what make it was - but it was worth your life to even think of borrowing it! I think she received it as a graduation gift.

[welch]

My parents and grandparents used fountain pens or pencils, depending on the writing task. They were everyday utilitarian objects and available everywhere - I remember that my first FP (required for school in Grade 3) came from a tiny stationery shelf in our local general store in the nearby small village (about 500 people). The only special FP I remember was one belonging to my aunt - no idea what make it was - but it was worth your life to even think of borrowing it! I think she received it as a graduation gift.

 

+1, although I lived in DC and a suburb. We had several stores with inexpensive fountain pens. I think Wearever lever-filler and Sheaffer cartridge school pens. The store sold Sheaffer Skrip: black, blue black, and blue, permanent or washable. Also red, purple (?) and Peacock Blue, but us boys would not consider anything but shades of blue or black.

[Vintagepens]

There is actually quite a bit of info on production numbers, and indeed the cheapies were produced in numbers considerably greater than for top-line fountain pens.

As noted above, the survival rate differs considerably. It's not just a function of the better pens being more likely to be kept because they were more expensive. Cheaper pens usually just didn't hold up: the plastics warped and cracked, the internal springs broke or took a set, trim plating wore off, and nibs broke, bent, or wore out.

Hunting in the wild, this all becomes all too clear.

[Vintagepens]

I should add it's also very interesting reading going through old Consumers Union fountain pen review articles, as they are written from a user's standpoint. They recommend, for example, that people in the habit of losing or dropping pens shouldn't buy expensive ones. Not everyone was thinking of a fountain pen as a lifetime purchase.

 

[WilsonCQB1911]

Did people worry about cleaning their pens or whether the pens sat with ink in them without use for a week or so? Or is that all a recent affectation?

[jar]

Did people worry about cleaning their pens or whether the pens sat with ink in them without use for a week or so? Or is that all a recent affectation?

Generally you write to someone or used a pen several times a day so pens simply did not sit unused. But I can't ever remember anyone cleaning a pen unless there had been some accident.

[New_Falcon]

Just want to thank all the posters in this thread, really enjoyed it.