Ugly Fountain Pens

[amk]

That Omas doctor's pen looks like a Pelikan that swallowed an Alien :-)

[Old_Inkyhand]

@ Old_Inkyhand -- I'm not sure I'd call that MB pen ugly. Tacky, though, certainly....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Well, everything is personal! I think that it would be much better if they replaced the little diamonds with, for example, multilayered deep lacquer. I can understand the concept of the cap top, which is really well crafted and nice in its own way, but the rest looks like a Diplomat Balance after some serious tuning performed by a group of 7 years old girls At least for me! But some like it and this is beautiful. Variety of pens and tastes is a really beautiful thing.

[rwilsonedn]

... but the rest looks like a Diplomat Balance after some serious tuning performed by a group of 7 years old girls ...

 

What a wonderful, yet precise, description! I nominate this for faint praise of the month.

ron

[dogpoet]

Another +1 for that uber-blingy looking Montblanc... object.

(Bear in mind that I am one of these unfortunates who quite likes the look of the Rotring Core, so my opinion about this may be suspect.)

[Old_Inkyhand]

I nominate this for faint praise of the month.

 

My life is complete now. Now I can peacefully go to the inky heaven, hoping there are no Monte Celias in there.

 

The world is so strange. There are people who don't have money and don't know what to do with this fact - and there are people who have money and don't know what to do with this fact, as well.

If I were a wicked millionaire, I would buy this gleaming stick and hang it on my cherry tree to deter those insidious starlings, which regularly eat my fruit. There aren't many starlings in the Middle East and I bet this marvel of pen design is the reason.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I sometimes see a picture of an expensive pen which is, in my view, hideously overdecorated without any hint of good taste. But then, if I can't afford them, perhaps I'm biased.

 

From my own pens, I don't know if I have any that I'd call ugly as such, but this Wing Sung has always struck me as the sort of fountain pen you'd get from a gumball machine, if they did have pens as prizes in gumball machines. Showing my age, I guess.

 

http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt221/mapn/Pens/29a6c157-9102-4a67-8012-fbd0f5aabd70_zps0a868fbf.jpg

[shawndp]

For the ugly pen of the year, I nominate something with no class in the design or build, where ugly is more than visual... I give you a pen so terrible that I dare not post a picture... the <new> Esterbrooke Deluxe Limited Edition...

[scrivelry]

Once a pen gets to the point of no longer being a pen, so much as an object, I wouldn't judge it as a pen. The poor thing is, at that point,running from behind.

 

The Chaos does not bother me, even if it does look like something the Devil should buy for signing contracts at the crossroads, but it's only tangentially a pen.

 

I do have one of those relatively cheap snake pens, and I love it. I asked for it, it was a gift - I should get the dragons and the grapes as well - but it is not exactly a daily writer for me. Maybe If they still do actual signatures on contracts I will use it to sign the contract for my first novel, since I don't have a Mont Blanc.

 

There are a lot of actual pens out there I find ugly - most really modern fountain pens are not attractive to me. But then, I am the only one I know who owns not one but two almost identical Wearever deluxe 100's in the sort of weird pink tiger stripe colorway (They would be indistinguishable from each other but one is missing the cap band.). I like pretty colors.

 

Signed, one who might win the contest for greatest number of green marble-y celluloid non-Esterbrook fountain pens in a pen hoard...

 

ETA: I also have Esties. It is just that they are a category unto themselves, so having a half a dozen in green would be an Estie thing, not necessarily a generalized old celluloid thing.

Edited April 6, 2016 by scrivelry

[inkstainedruth]

I sometimes see a picture of an expensive pen which is, in my view, hideously overdecorated without any hint of good taste. But then, if I can't afford them, perhaps I'm biased.

 

From my own pens, I don't know if I have any that I'd call ugly as such, but this Wing Sung has always struck me as the sort of fountain pen you'd get from a gumball machine, if they did have pens as prizes in gumball machines. Showing my age, I guess.

 

http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt221/mapn/Pens/29a6c157-9102-4a67-8012-fbd0f5aabd70_zps0a868fbf.jpg

 

Yeah, that one is a little, um, garish....

OTOH, I have a Wing Sung 237 which is quite attractive. And does not look as if it came out of a gumball machine...

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[inkstainedruth]

For the ugly pen of the year, I nominate something with no class in the design or build, where ugly is more than visual... I give you a pen so terrible that I dare not post a picture... the <new> Esterbrooke Deluxe Limited Edition...

But does it come in a really nice box?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[shawndp]

But does it come in a really nice box?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

The box is smashing! Up there with the greatest boxes of our time! And the Aluminium strip is totally not a conductor for when lightening strikes!

[inkstainedruth]

 

The box is smashing! Up there with the greatest boxes of our time! And the Aluminium strip is totally not a conductor for when lightening strikes!

 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[utopic]

I find most fountain pens ugly. Especially big or clear body pens.

+1. I wouldn't necessarily use the word 'ugly', but 'unattractive'. And to some extent, they all look too much alike.

 

 

Once a pen gets to the point of no longer being a pen, so much as an object, I wouldn't judge it as a pen. The poor thing is, at that point,running from behind.

 

There are a lot of actual pens out there I find ugly - most really modern fountain pens are not attractive to me.

+1. What's worse, some of those objects you mention aspire to be works of art, but fail.

 

 

I find most Visconti fountain pens fugly. And the higher up the range you go... well, it doesn't help. Take for instance:http://www.bograve-luxury.ro/uploads/71399-gm_HRH-_stilou.png

 

Some of their nibs look great though.

 

Disclaimer: de gustibus et coloribus non disputandum and I mean no personal offense to fans of said pens

[dojocho]

Over the years I have found my easthetical preference to bias not towards a certain pen or model, but towads certain key features. Among the things that do not please my eyes are

- cigar shaped pens

- pens with a substantial rim between te barrel and the grip section

- overly decorated pens

- pens with a metal grip section

- tapering grip sections

- disproportionate pens

- plastic pens with a metal cap

 

but feel free to disagree if any of these characteristics rock your craddle.

 

regards,

Hugo

[Bo Bo Olson]

We have forgotten Krone.

 

And that Montgrappa makes the Esterbrook Deluxe limited, look understated.

 

If you really have the money MB will make any ugly pen you can afford, # 1/1.

[Gofixmix]

Well, everything must be beautiful to somebody... or in certain light... or to aliens... EXCEPT,

 

that ink window on the Vista.

 

An ugly hole so u can see inside...transparent pen?

 

Infuriatingly ugly on all possible levels.

Like a hole in a crystal ball. Ruining the magic.

 

Definitely gets my vote.

[Raif79]

Over the years I have found my easthetical preference to bias not towards a certain pen or model, but towads certain key features. Among the things that do not please my eyes are

- cigar shaped pens

- pens with a substantial rim between te barrel and the grip section

- overly decorated pens

- pens with a metal grip section

- tapering grip sections

- disproportionate pens

- plastic pens with a metal cap

 

but feel free to disagree if any of these characteristics rock your craddle.

 

regards,

Hugo

 

Umm there's not much left lol. I agree with you on a few of your dislikes. I like a lot of cigar shaped pens, pens with metal caps on plastic bodies and "some" pens with a metal section.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I sometimes see a picture of an expensive pen which is, in my view, hideously overdecorated without any hint of good taste. But then, if I can't afford them, perhaps I'm biased.

 

From my own pens, I don't know if I have any that I'd call ugly as such, but this Wing Sung has always struck me as the sort of fountain pen you'd get from a gumball machine, if they did have pens as prizes in gumball machines. Showing my age, I guess.

 

http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt221/mapn/Pens/29a6c157-9102-4a67-8012-fbd0f5aabd70_zps0a868fbf.jpg

 

 

Heyyyyyyy! I resemble that remark!

 

And I also have TWO Rotring Cores. Muahahaaaaa.

[dogpoet]

Very underrated pen, the Core. I wish I hadn't got rid of mine with how the prices for the things seem to be shooting up at the moment...

[Old_Inkyhand]

I don't like the design of some pens with short caps and big long barrels. A pen like this looks like a Shire horse with a head of an Shetland pony... well, at least in my eyes.