Pen Book Recommendations

[smbk]

What are some good books on pens, pen history, penmanship, and related topics?

[Florida Blue]

I love fountain pen books! I wish there was more discussion on books dealing with pens.

 

Some great books that I've read are:

 

Paul Erano's "Fountain Pens Past & Present."

 

Fischler & Schneider"s "Fountain Pens & Pencils" The Golden Age of Writing Instruments."

 

Jonathan Steinberg's "Fountain Pens: The Collector's Guide To Selecting, Buying, And Enjoying New And Vintage Fountain Pens."

 

Jonathan Steinberg's "Fountain Pens: Their History And Art."

 

 

Andreas Lambrou "Fountain Pens: United States of America and United Kingdom."

 

Andreas Lambrou "Fountain Pens of the World."

 

 

The last two are quite expensive, but those are more for the advanced collector of vintage pens. Good luck finding some books!

[smbk]

I love fountain pen books! I wish there was more discussion on books dealing with pens.

 

Some great books that I've read are:

 

Paul Erano's "Fountain Pens Past & Present."

 

Fischler & Schneider"s "Fountain Pens & Pencils" The Golden Age of Writing Instruments."

 

Jonathan Steinberg's "Fountain Pens: The Collector's Guide To Selecting, Buying, And Enjoying New And Vintage Fountain Pens."

 

Jonathan Steinberg's "Fountain Pens: Their History And Art."

 

 

Andreas Lambrou "Fountain Pens: United States of America and United Kingdom."

 

Andreas Lambrou "Fountain Pens of the World."

 

 

The last two are quite expensive, but those are more for the advanced collector of vintage pens. Good luck finding some books!

Thanks! I recently read Jonathan Steinberg's "Fountain Pens: Their History And Art," and I will definitely check out the others.

[Opooh]

Don't forget Richard Binder: The RichardsPens Guide to Fountain Pens vol I ( glossarium ) and II ( restauration).

 

On his site you find also different books : http://www.richardspens.com/

[Lorna Reed]

Fountain Pens by Peter Twydle. Published by Crowood Press.ISBN 978 1 84797 114 2

[Guy007]

With the "Fountain Pens of the World" book, it was published in 1995, was it 'revised/updated" when it was republished in 2006 ?

[Guy007]

Also note a good site for fountain pens books I have found is :

 

http://nibs.com/BooksGeneralPage.html

[Vendome]

I don't have any actual books, but I've written to a few manufacturers requesting brochures / catalogues, which they send out free.

[balson]

one that was recommended to me by an old pen collector was "the new official P.F.C pen guide"

 

it does not have any information on the history of pens but what it does have is 130 pages of black and white pictures of early pens. most of them are illustrations but what make the book unique is that all of the images are to scale. so if you have a mystery bchr pen from a top manufacturer you can literally just hold it up over the picture and see if it matches.

 

the biggest problem with the book is that it focuses mostly on pens from around the 1920's. there is a little bit on parker and sheafer and waterman up to the 50's but they are less thorough there. all the images are of the pens posted too so you dont get to see any of the details that the cap is covering.

 

 

 

does anyone know of any other books where the pens are pictured in actual size?

[Ron Z]

Recommended are Erano's books, Fischler and Schneider (both are are good, though the blue book is better than the brown book - I have both) and Andy Lanbrous. Andy tends to stay away from pricing, but if you're trying to identify a pen and want information on the publisher, they're very good. Word on the street is that there are some errors in Jonathan Steinberg's though I haven't read them close enough to say myself. Regina Martini's is rather incomplete. I'm not even sure that it's still in circulation

 

For brand/model focus I highly recommend the Parker Duofold book and the Parker 51 books.

 

For repair books, I recommend only one - the pen repair book by Marshall and Oldfield. The third edition is in the works. My copy will go right next to the other two.

 

Not to be overlooked is the Pen Collectors of America library. In it you'll l find copies of all kinds of original documents, manuals, ads and such. You'll also find copies of past issues of both the PCA Pennant and Pen World.... all searchable and downloadable for free to PCA members with regular additions of fresh material.

[RMN]

If you are starting in the field of fountainpens and want to know what all these different systems and nibs are all about I can recommend the Peter Twydle book as mentioned above.

 

It is easily available on Amazon and is a great introduction and not expensive.

 

The Lambrou books are hard to find and very expensive but considered the pen-bible.

 

D.ick

[Guy007]

 

 

The Lambrou books are hard to find and very expensive but considered the pen-bible.

 

D.ick

 

When I found the link for the books at Nibs, I posted the link. The books on ebay/amazon/abebooks were very pricey. So while still expensive, were more affordable at Nibs and supporting a pen store is always a good thing.