Bauhaus Pens?

[SweepHand]

While I can appreciate some of the more ornate and artistic pens, I'm finding myself drawn to the Lamy 2000s, the Rotring 600s and the like. These have a cleaner, less-adorned aesthetic, which just resonates better with my own personal style. I've often seen the Lamy 2000 described as having a bauhaus design, so maybe that's what I like. What are some more pens in a bauhaus style or that embody the functional, industrial style of the Lamy 2000 or Rotring 600?

[tonybelding]

I'm no expert on Bauhaus, but. . . . . .

 

Parker 51? Or Parker 45, even?

 

Sheaffer Imperial? Sheaffer Targa?

 

Edisons are generally very clean, due to the lack of cap bands and other trim bits. The Pearl and Morgan come to mind, and particularly the satin black Nouveau Premiere.

 

I prefer functional, no-nonsense designs myself. However, I sometimes find myself attracted more to the classic 1920s-1930s styles, rather than the ultra-modern ones. A Parker "Big Red" is a good example, as it's far from ornate.

[opitzs]

Lamy CP1

Aurora Hastil

 

Those are the only ones coming to me right now...

[mana]

SweepHand, this thread might be of interest to you > https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/154176-industrial-looking-fountain-pens/

[SweepHand]

Thanks, tonybelding, for the suggestions. I've looked at the Parker 51 (and own a Hero 100), but for some reason it just doesn't hit the aesthetic note I'm looking for. It has that mid-20th century 'futuristic' style like the Space Needle or The Jetsons, or something along those lines. I think my hesitation at the Sheaffers springs from the same sort of gut reaction, however misplaced it may be.

 

The Edisons you've suggested really knock my socks off, though! I received a catalog from Romillo Pens a while back, and they offer some similar elegant, unadorned designs, but the prices are just out of reach for me. The Edisons hit some of those same stylistic notes at more attainable prices, though. Probably too elegant to be considered bauhaus, but whatever it is I like it!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Lamy Persona is said to be Bauhaus style.

The spring clip retreats into the pen.

 

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/IMG_3985.jpg

 

This shows the section, which is unusual also. A decreasing row of 'rings'. In that it is Black Titanium Oxide the metal section is not the least bit slippery.

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/IMG_3993.jpg

 

There is also a nice little gold end disk on the barrel.

 

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/IMG_3981.jpg

 

18 K OB nail that was never used changed to a nice CI by Pendleton Brown.

It sits in it's own cup, so it like a Cross Townsend don't eat the other pens.

Edited July 11, 2011 by Bo Bo Olson

[Florida Blue]

That steamlined design was popular with pen manufactures in the 1960s. The Montblanc 12, 14, 22, 32 and 34 all have those simplistic lines.

 

As already mentioned the Parker 45 is a similar design. I don't think the 51 would fit that description as it is a very classically designed pen of the 1940s. The Parker 17 is another modernistic pen. The Parker 61 was a very modern design when they introduced it in the late 50s.

Edited July 11, 2011 by Florida Blue

[mstone]

I don't find the 2k all that bauhaus--that platinum on the nib is completely unnecessary. Old-model safaris (with actual screws instead of screw-shaped plastic rivets) and steel nibs are the apogee of the form. All-metal vectors are another good choice, or the plainer versions of the old MYU. (M90 has that gaudy jewel, so it's right out.) On the higher end you get a bling-free model from Edison, possibly even without a clip.

[jimhughes]

Doug C sent this around to NMPCC folks. I don't know how he stumbled onto the fellow but

if this isn't Form Follows Function I don't know what is. As the owner of a 1957 356, I have a bit of experience in this area. A piece of art thats functional. celevipens.com/wordpress. A fellow in Winipeg Canada does them. Jim

[mana]

Doug C sent this around to NMPCC folks. I don't know how he stumbled onto the fellow but

if this isn't Form Follows Function I don't know what is. As the owner of a 1957 356, I have a bit of experience in this area. A piece of art thats functional. celevipens.com/wordpress. A fellow in Winipeg Canada does them. Jim

 

Nice...

[SweepHand]

I don't find the 2k all that bauhaus--that platinum on the nib is completely unnecessary. Old-model safaris (with actual screws instead of screw-shaped plastic rivets) and steel nibs are the apogee of the form. All-metal vectors are another good choice, or the plainer versions of the old MYU. (M90 has that gaudy jewel, so it's right out.) On the higher end you get a bling-free model from Edison, possibly even without a clip.

I can't claim any particular expertise in Bauhaus design, but I think you're in the vast minority on whether the Lamy 2000 qualifies or not. It seems that hardly a review has been tendered that doesn't make mention of the Bauhaus bona fides of Gerd A. Müller, and hold up his creation, the Lamy 2000, as an embodiment of the design philosophy.

 

http://www.lamy.com/content/the_company/design/product_designers/index_eng.html

 

Regarding the gold nib, I think the pen would be rather more visually complicated and therefore rather less Bauhaus without the coating.

[SweepHand]

Doug C sent this around to NMPCC folks. I don't know how he stumbled onto the fellow but

if this isn't Form Follows Function I don't know what is. As the owner of a 1957 356, I have a bit of experience in this area. A piece of art thats functional. celevipens.com/wordpress. A fellow in Winipeg Canada does them. Jim

Nice! And I have a gaping hole in my collection where a button filler should probably sit...

[Jerome Tarshis]

The Parker 51 is at least as much a Bauhaus pen as the Lamy 2000. Parker was very interested in the Bauhaus during the 1930s, and the company actually employed Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, which is much more than one can say for Lamy. (But no, Moholy didn't design the Parker 51.) Almost any designed object of the second and third quarters of the twentieth century that wasn't a deliberate period revival (like Mission and Colonial furniture in the United States) could be considered to be inspired by the Bauhaus. In addition, the Bauhaus used bright colors, not just black. Sonia Delaunay's tapestry designs were very colorful, as were other textile designs that came out of the school.

 

Gerd Mueller, who designed the Lamy 2000, is also noted for having designed the Braun electric shaver, and that was pleasantly curved and light-colored. His connection with the Bauhaus was that he attended the design school in Ulm that claimed filiation from the Bauhaus. The New Bauhaus in Illinois, where Moholy taught, had at least as much right as the school in Ulm to claim descent from the original Bauhaus.

 

When we consider that extremely simple black pens existed before the Bauhaus existed, it would seem ahistorical to say a simple black pen was inspired by Bauhaus principles. The simple black pens came first. It seems more historical to say that simple black pens inspired Bauhaus principles of design, because the founders of the Bauhaus used those pens.

 

Which were almost the only kind of fountain pen they would have used in 1918. Yes, there could be gold or silver overlays on top of the black hard rubber, which casts an ironic light on the idea that early fountain pens were mere tools, not luxury objects. In 1911 as in 2011, fountain-pen purchasers could buy as much luxury as they chose to pay for. Or as much austerity. But let's say that in defeated Germany just after the Great War, the founders of the Bauhaus would have known simple pens as well as simple meals and simple housing.

[mana]

Jerome: "Hear, hear!"

[Florida Blue]

In addition, the Bauhaus used bright colors, not just black.

 

That's why I always wondered why companies like Montblanc and Lamy only produce pens in black or silver. Bauhaus is noted for the use of primary colors: red, yellow and blue. It seems that the whole notion of "form before function" should celebrate bright colors and even a bit o' bling like a plain gold-filled cap or clip not just boring monochromatic black, white and grey color schemes. At least the Safari comes in some fun colors. I suppose if that were the case than a P51 really is Bauhaus.

 

By the way, great post!

Edited July 11, 2011 by Florida Blue

[SweepHand]

When we consider that extremely simple black pens existed before the Bauhaus existed, it would seem ahistorical to say a simple black pen was inspired by Bauhaus principles. The simple black pens came first. It seems more historical to say that simple black pens inspired Bauhaus principles of design, because the founders of the Bauhaus used those pens.

I'm not sure if someone else was saying this, but just to clarify, I don't think that simple and black necessarily equates to Bauhaus. Maybe I'm placing too much emphasis on the industrial aspect, but I think that the Lamy 2000s textured metal and makralon make it look more functional and tool-like than the same design would look in a polished form.

[alexander_k]

Modernism (with Bauhaus at its core) has claimed quite a lot, for example ancestry in any progressive or functional design before them, as well as dominance over alternative tendencies. So equating simplified forms, attention to function, mass production etc. to Bauhaus or Modernism is probably not always the case. This doesn't mean that Bauhaus-trained or inspired designers weren't a significant force especially in the post-WW2 period when everyone seemed to be looking for something new.

[mstone]

I don't find the 2k all that bauhaus--that platinum on the nib is completely unnecessary. Old-model safaris (with actual screws instead of screw-shaped plastic rivets) and steel nibs are the apogee of the form. All-metal vectors are another good choice, or the plainer versions of the old MYU. (M90 has that gaudy jewel, so it's right out.) On the higher end you get a bling-free model from Edison, possibly even without a clip.

I can't claim any particular expertise in Bauhaus design, but I think you're in the vast minority on whether the Lamy 2000 qualifies or not. It seems that hardly a review has been tendered that doesn't make mention of the Bauhaus bona fides of Gerd A. Müller, and hold up his creation, the Lamy 2000, as an embodiment of the design philosophy.

 

http://www.lamy.com/.../index_eng.html

 

Regarding the gold nib, I think the pen would be rather more visually complicated and therefore rather less Bauhaus without the coating.

 

It's certainly true that I'm in a minority in that, and that calling the 2k bauhaus has gone well past the point of cliche (and has been heavily marketed to sell more pens). But the bauhaus school embodies an ideal of form following function, of eschewing unnecessary ornamentation, and of being true to the nature of the material. Hiding a gold nib under a layer of platinum to make it look more like the steel hardware is a grating departure. Four options would have been to use a white gold alloy, palladium silver, a simple steel nib, or to not worry about the little bit of yellow gold poking out. Choosing to use the platinum instead was a marketing and aesthetic choice, not a choice driven by function.

 

 

 

The Parker 51 is at least as much a Bauhaus pen as the Lamy 2000. Parker was very interested in the Bauhaus during the 1930s, and the company actually employed Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, which is much more than one can say for Lamy. (But no, Moholy didn't design the Parker 51.) Almost any designed object of the second and third quarters of the twentieth century that wasn't a deliberate period revival (like Mission and Colonial furniture in the United States) could be considered to be inspired by the Bauhaus.

 

Were the parker designers aware of bauhaus? Of course. The pen body itself is very much of that school. The caps, on the other hand, are more art deco, especially the higher lines, as are the original double jewel vac fillers (that jewel serves no particular function, as is amply demonstrated by the fact that later versions dropped it).

 

I suspect that the whole "is this pen bauhaus" meme wouldn't even exist if it wasn't fed by lamy's marketing material. Reality is much more complex.

[trent]

I find the P-51 much closer to a Bauhaus aesthetic than even the Lamy 2000. There is something luxurious about the Lamy2K, its texture, and the silvery nib section, compared to the greater aerodynamic simplicity of the P-51. Moholy-Nagy's endorsement of the P-51 further supports its Bauhaus compatibility. After all, he was one of the school's most important teachers.

[troglokev]

Thanks, tonybelding, for the suggestions. I've looked at the Parker 51 (and own a Hero 100), but for some reason it just doesn't hit the aesthetic note I'm looking for. It has that mid-20th century 'futuristic' style like the Space Needle or The Jetsons, or something along those lines. I think my hesitation at the Sheaffers springs from the same sort of gut reaction, however misplaced it may be.

How about the Pilot MYU or the Parker 50? Or even a T1?