"The Chronicle of the Fountain Pens by Martins, Leite, and Gagean

[antoniosz]

I got this as a gift and it is really a heavy book. I will not attempt a full review since it is going to take me a while to read it all.

I will only make few comments some good, some negative.

 

350 pages full of information and fountain pen photographs. About 10-20 pens per page this means that there are

about 5,000 pens shown in this book. Quite a number. The photos are OK but not of the best quality

(we have been spoiled with some great photos lately especially online). Perhaps it is a mater of converting digital

photos into print. Still the amount of information is amazing. The information is organized by year. Each year

section contains a discussion of what happened during that year with many photos, and a historical table with

important historical information and parallel developments in the pen world. It starts from 1883 and ends to 2005.

 

I looked few areas that are of interested to me. The discussion of the Sheaffer Lady Skripsert has one model that is

uncataloged, similar to a white corduroy but with wavy lines. But the steel nibs of this model are told to be "silver"

and the gold plated ones "gold" Oops...

 

A statement that I did not like caught my eye. They say: "prices at Pen Shows are much lower than in internet auctions such as ebay".

I dont think so... There are objective reasons that make Pen shows interesting and a must for collectors. There is no reasons

for seasoned collectors to put down ebay - after all we knwo that they are fishing in the waters of the bay also (some times very agressively )

 

A plus of the book is some european pens that are unknown at least on this side of the Atlantic are presented (like some beautiful portugese

silver pens all with crescent filling mechanisms and some nice snake clips). Also there is enough attention (better than many other books) to non-first tier pens.

 

All in all, this is a major effort - the amount of work for such a book is enormous. Looking forward to read it more...

Edited June 21, 2007 by antoniosz

[aunt rebecca]

i asked for information that was given in the topic's title. it is late!! :ltcapd:

Edited June 13, 2007 by aunt rebecca

[david i]

I got this as a gift and it is really a heavy book. I will not attempt a full review since it is going to take me a while to read it all.

I will only make few comments some good, some negative.

 

350 pages full of information and fountain pen photographs. About 10-20 pens per page this means that there are

about 5,000 pens shown in this book. Quite a number. The photos are OK but not of the best quality

(we have been spoiled with some great photos lately especially online). Perhaps it is a mater of converting digital

photos into print. Still the amount of information is amazing. The information is organized by year. Each year

section contains a discussion of what happened during that year with many photos, and a historical table with

important historical information and parallel developments in the pen world. It starts from 1883 and ends to 2005.

 

I looked few areas that are of interested to me. The discussion of the Sheaffer Lady Skripsert has one model that is

uncataloged, similar to a white corduroy but with wavy lines. But the steel nibs of this model are told to be "silver"

and the gold plated ones "gold" Oops...

 

The legend of Parker Sonnets photos is not accurate. A medium band (post 2003) Cisele is said to be c. 1993-1998.

All thick band models (1999-2003) are said to be 1993-1998 I was surprised as one of the authors was a Parker dealer.

 

A statement that I did not like caught my eye. They say: "prices at Pen Shows are much lower than in internet auctions such as ebay".

I dont think so... There are objective reasons that make Pen shows interesting and a must for collectors. There is no reasons

for seasoned collectors to put down ebay - after all we knwo that they are fishing in the waters of the bay also (some times very agressively )

 

A plus of the book is some european pens that are unknown at least on this side of the Atlantic are presented (like some beautiful portugese

silver pens all with crescent filling mechanisms and some nice snake clips). Also there is enough attention (better than many other books) to non-first tier pens.

 

All in all, this is a major effort - the amount of work for such a book is enormous. Looking forward to read it more...

 

Luiz Leite showed me the book at Chicago. A work of art. Plan to grab my copy next couple weeks.

 

david

 

 

[framebaer]

Got mine a couple weeks ago from Amazon---- good price----$65 shipped as i recall

[Johnny Appleseed]

Luiz Leite showed me the book at Chicago.

 

There wouldn't be a large section on Eclipse in there?

 

John

[robertaia]

To all:

My copy arrived about two weeks and I also got mine from Amazon for $65 +/-. I was fortuante to see a rough draft last year at Chicago, mostly pictures but tons of them. I've only gotten throught the first couple of chapters, so far, I'm impressed. There was a lot of work put into this book.

 

Luiz is the person I met last year in Chicago, he's also a collector of Eclipse, damn!!!!!!!!

He told me that they took all of the pictures themselves in his basement. The research, he told me, was culminated over a ten year period.

 

There are several nice pictures of Eclipse, and their sub-brands, scattered throught out the book, there is no dedicated section to the Eclipse line since the book is organized by years and by world events.

 

Johnny you will like it.

Robert

[andyr7]

Yet another example of the unfairness of transatlantic pricing! I just checked amazon.co.uk and found it listed for UK buyers (before shipping) at almost £82! Even the cheapest price from a UK supplier on the amazon sellers list was £62 which is still effectively twice the price paid in the US!

 

Andy

[aunt rebecca]

ha the ways to get around that is to find a kind friend on fpn to buy the book and re-ship it to you as a gift? will you have to pay the vat? just one suggestion.

[andyr7]

Sounds like a hefty and expensive item to ship across the Atlantic though!

 

We seem to have an informal exemption on VAT for anything with a declared value of less than £18 (I think, from memory), though in theory there is no VAT charged on books in any case. I'm not sure how the import duties work on books (generally charged over and above VAT) but we would have to pay those plus a handling charge to the mail service on top.

 

Basically, we just seem to get ripped off on all fronts!

 

Mind you, if anybody is travelling over here with some room in their suitcase (and sufficient baggage allowance).......!

 

Andy