Hungarian Pens

[Venemo]

Hey,

 

Sure, I'll make a sample next time I get to visit my family.

 

Some of these pens occasionally turn up on various auction sites. One has to be careful though as most of the time the people selling these items haven't got the slightest clue about what they are selling. Sometimes I've seen fountain pens misidentified as tube pens (or dip pens called fountain pens, etc). And most of these people are like "omg, it has gold on the nib so it must be worth a fortune" - and they upload the pen with a very unjustifiedly huge price tag. But most of the time the pens are just beyond repair...

 

Just saying (since there have been mention of Czech pens at the beginning of the topic): I also recommend the guy called Debashish Chaudhuri - he is a pen restorer from Prague and has very good expertise on Czech pens (also repaired my broken Centropen) - Hungary is not far away, so maybe you could contact him and maybe he does have some knowledge about Hungarian pens too.

 

Pavoni, can you give me a link to any pictures of these Lánchíd fountain pens? I'm a bit curious as I haven't seen any of them yet.

 

Btw, you can try your luck at various Hungarian sites (Vatera, OLX, Galeria Savaria) - they sometimes yield interesting results. At this moment I managed to find two nice pens (that have the logo from earlier in this topic + one of the sellers claims it's a Hungarian pen), here is one that resembles the black Turcsány (but without the Turcsány caption), then there is this one (also vintage but of a brand I'm unfamilar with) and the black one here also looks interesting.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Venemo

[Venemo]

Almost forgot to mention: there is this huge collector Tamás Szűcs - I'm not sure if he has any specific interest in Hungarian-made fountain pens, but just in case here is his site - maybe it's worth to contact him.

 

Hope this helps!

[attika89]

Now you are giving out all our secrets!

Just kidding!

Tamás is a nice guy. He does repairs and nib grinds as well. AND he has nice pens! I don't have any experience with his work yet though.

Edited August 15, 2014 by attika89

[Venemo]

Now you are giving out all our secrets!

Just kidding!

 

Tamás is a nice guy. He does repairs and nib grinds as well. AND he has nice pens! I don't have any experience with his work yet though.

 

He is very helpful. I got a nib from him (for the same Centropen, but I ended up using the one I got from Deb) and I've bought one of his pens approx. half a year ago - a vintage mini Treasure pen (off topic, but can't help it) - it was cheap and I fell in love with the color. Then I used the poor thing as a day-to-day writer for a semester at university (used black Quink in it). One of my professors was impressed with the result - at my exam he said that my letters appear as if they were printed, instead of written, on the paper.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Venemo

[attika89]

Not sure about the maker of this one, but its mine now. Hopefully will arrive next week.
Its engraved "Lánchíd Átíró"
translated as something like "Chainbridge Re-writer" (?) or something like that.
It refers to Budapest's Chainbridge of course. I'm not sure if it was a big brand, but I saw vintage boxes of their pens.
For $20 it was a nice deal, I'd say. As I know it draws up ink nicely, so lets ope for the best.

Seller's photos:
http://kepfeltoltes.hu/141206/8087_1_big_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

 

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/141206/8087_4_big_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

 

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/141206/8087_2_big_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

 

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/141206/8087_5_big_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

 

And the bridge itself: (not included )
http://about-eastern-europe.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Chain-Bridge-and-St-Stephens-Basilica.jpg

Edited December 6, 2014 by attika89

[BMG]

Nice to see some action -- and some pics -- on this thread.

 

@attika89 -- that pen is a beauty! Thanks for sharing.

[tinta]

A lovely pic Attila,.. with Szent István Bazilika rising up behind the bridge.

(That was my local church in the 50s.) Maybe I should fly over next year.

 

Anyway, about your new pen:

Any possible idea if this pen is pre or post 45? I can see the blind cap off, but what kind of filling mechanism is in the pen?

Cheers: István

[attika89]

A lovely pic Attila,.. with Szent István Bazilika rising up behind the bridge.

(That was my local church in the 50s.) Maybe I should fly over next year.

 

Anyway, about your new pen:

Any possible idea if this pen is pre or post 45? I can see the blind cap off, but what kind of filling mechanism is in the pen?

Cheers: István

Szervusz István!

That is indeed a beautiful photo! I've found it online.

 

As for the age of the pen, I only know what the seller was able to tell. Somewhere from the 50s....

I'll ask around about it and see if there is anyone out there who could tell me (us) something about the brand itself as well.

The pen itself is piston filler though.

Edited December 6, 2014 by attika89

[tinta]

Szervusz Attila!

Shape-wise (the cap & clip in particular) your pen looks much like the one I had while in senior class, except mine was a bulb filler.

After this pen arrives, I hope you'll post your usual beautifully detailed shots, along with some writing samples.

Üdv: István

[katerchen]

Almost forgot to mention: there is this huge collector Tamás Szűcs - I'm not sure if he has any specific interest in Hungarian-made fountain pens, but just in case here is his site - maybe it's worth to contact him.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Wow. Didn't know this (from his site) :

 

És akkor megjelent Kovács Tódor magyar feltaláló, aki egy tengelyre szerelt parafát használt dugattyúként a töltőtoll testbe, mint hengerbe, egy teleszkópos tengelyen keresztül. A toll végén lévő forgattyúval lehetett előre és hátra tekerni a parafát. Kovács kezdetben egy horvát gyártónak a Penkala cégnek dolgozott, de a gyár anyagilag megroggyant, így Kovács a fizetőképesebb német Günther Wagner gyártulajdonosnak adta el a szabadalmat 1927-ben. 1929-ben már robbantott is az új töltőszerkezettel a Pelikan cég. E módszer forradalmasította a töltőtoll technológiát, melyet később a Montblanc cég is kénytelen volt alkalmazni. A mai töltőtollak is ezt a szívási módszert alkalmazzák a mai napig.

 

 

(I wouldn't even try to feed this to Google Translate ... they might get half of the words right and none of the sentence structure)

 

TL;DR : piston fillers were invented by a Hungarian Inventor.

 

-k

[attika89]

Its one of those times when a Hungarian inventor had no money to license their invention or had to move out of the country and was lucky enough to get successful abroad. I think it must have been true to the whole area at that time.

 

Szervusz Attila!

Shape-wise (the cap & clip in particular) your pen looks much like the one I had while in senior class, except mine was a bulb filler.

After this pen arrives, I hope you'll post your usual beautifully detailed shots, along with some writing samples.

Üdv: István

I would not be me if I'd not post photos

[tinta]

How about Mr Bíró's invention? Was the ballpoint developed outside of Hungary?

[attika89]

How about Mr Bíró's invention? Was the ballpoint developed outside of Hungary?

Well, it was never licensed in Hungary.

 

"Bíró's innovation successfully coupled ink-viscosity with a ball-socket mechanism which act compatibly to prevent ink from drying inside the reservoir while allowing controlled flow.^[4] Bíró filed a British patent on 15 June 1938.^[1][12]

In 1941 the Bíró brothers and a friend, Juan Jorge Meyne, fled Germany and moved to Argentina, where they formed Bíró Pens of Argentina and filed a new patent in 1943.^[1] Their pen was sold in Argentina as the Birome (portmanteau of the names Bíró and Meyne), which is how ballpoint pens are still known in that country.^[1] This new design was licensed by the British, who produced ballpoint pens for RAF aircrew as the Biro. Ballpoint pens were found to be more versatile than fountain pens, especially at high altitudes where fountain pens were prone to ink-leakage.^[4]"

 

"László Bíró died in Buenos Aires in 1985. Argentina's Inventors' Day is celebrated on Bíró's birthday, 29 September."

[attika89]

Soooo, the pen is here!
I still don't know more about the brand itself...

The pen is quite on the smaller side, has some deeper marks on it, but nothing too bad. Near the blind cap there is an imprint '45' on the barrel. Model number? No idea.

I'm not sure if the clip is replaced or, just lost all it's plating. Most probably the former.
The piston moves nicely, and the green ink window is still visible. I'll see if it clears up after washing the pen out a bit more.

The nib was toothy and also skipped, so I took a chance and went for it. Now it writes pretty nicely I'd say.

 

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/141209/P1230682_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/141209/P1230677_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

 

 

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/141211/P1230733_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

 

Before-after

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/141211/P1230742_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

 

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/141211/P1230737_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

[Venemo]

...

 

Just as an aside, please don't confuse "it's" and "its".

[katerchen]

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/141211/P1230737_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

 

Whoa. I need (Fine. "want") a bottle of that Blue Black.

 

Atiro in this context I'm guessing means a hard enough nib to use with carbon paper?

 

-k

 

 

[attika89]

Whoa. I need (Fine. "want") a bottle of that Blue Black.

 

Atiro in this context I'm guessing means a hard enough nib to use with carbon paper?

 

-k

That's my guess as well.

It is not that hard actually, but I can imagine that it could work.

 

 

Just as an aside, please don't confuse "it's" and "its".

Whoopsie....

[Azuniga]

Attika89

 

Maybe late to tell you that your photograph is beautiful, but I guess it is never too late to recognize something good...

Recently I found a pen I never heard about before, Juska Optima... since Juska seems to be (I am not certain) a Hungarian name, I wondered if the Juska pen is a Hungarian one...

Regards, Ariel

[Kaweco]

Hello Ariel

No, JUSKA is a German fountain pen from Julius Steinmann Kaiserslautern / Germany. The pens look exactly like the old Orthos made by Lamyin the early 30th, pretty sure the same guy made them.

Kind Regards

Thomas

[BMG]

Just stumbled across a number of Hungarian FPs up for auction on the bay. Here's a link.

 

Don't know anything about 'em, no affiliation with the seller, etc., but thought they'd be of interest.

 

EDIT: I couldn't figure out how to link to the Hungarian pens only -- apologies!

Edited December 20, 2014 by BMG