Your Favourite Designs

[JakobS]

I am into pens that have an Art Deco or Streamlined design to them so Wahl-Eversharp Doric, Esterbrook Visumaster, Wahl-Eversharp Skyline, Esterbrook Dollar/J, and Esterbrook SM Deluxe. Also, I like the simplicity of a functional no nonsense pen such as a Sheaffer Imperial II Deluxe, any pen made with a triumph nib would be beautiful to me.....

[artart]

Summit S.175 : elegant design with a large gold nib and an Art Deco clip

[bemon]

I'm gonna put my hand up for the Lamy 2000 too. Particularly uncapped. I'd love to get my hands on a stainless steel and/or the new blue version.

 

I also love the look of my Waterman Carene Contemporary in the Gunmetal finish.

[ethernautrix]

My favorite model of all time is Nakaya Piccolo Cigar.

 

My favorite nib is Pilot PO.

[welch]

Absolute aesthetics:

 

- Parker 51

 

- Parker 45

[txomsy]

It is a difficult question. I'd say that, in no particular order, I like

- MB-style cigar shaped, black, with at most a golden ring(s) in the cap. Like the 149 / 146, the Garant Alkor / Nilor or the Waterman W3 / W5 or the Reform p120 / p125 / 1745.

- Kaweco Liliput Copper, plain, for its absolutely minimalistic design, it has overcome my previously preferred MB Slimline/Noblesse

- Kaweco sport, specially the brass and stonewashed finishes, which, like the Copper Liliput age most gracefully in an aggressive environment, are portable everywhere, elegant and minimalistic yet unpretentious.

Edited October 4, 2019 by txomsy

[peroride]

All of these pens listed with the exception of the last 2

 

I had absolutely no interest in at all and swore I would never get

• Parker 51 Demi
• Parker Duofold
• Lamy 2000
• Montblanc 146
• Pelikan 100N / M101N
• Waterman 55
• Aurora 88

in hand and person, all bets are off

 

Never say never.

[mana]

Aesthetically most pleasing pens... loads of them. Many a MB WE, Verne as the front runner. MB Martele is also beautiful, same with the sterling silver pinstripe and first gen stainless steel Solitaires (146). Pelikan Maki-e pens have real stunners among them, actually drafted a "Grail pen" list some time ago that has all of the pens that I will try to get my hands on.

 

Ok, limited editions and one offs aside this is my "production pen" list in order they come to my mind:

• Pelikan 100N/101N (especially the post war ones). Pleasing shape where everything just is where it should be. One of the best functioning pens too.
• Pelikan 400 Tortoise, Light Tortoise & MOP. Same as above.
• Pelikan 100. Especially the early models in jade, blue and other funky colors. Have seen some gorgeous overlay ones (custom ones).
• Wahl Dorics in general, especially the Cathay and Kashmir color schemes.
• rOtring 600 Black. Those pens look just marvelous, as in, they are very much designed and engineered to look like a "design object". Ok'ish usability wise, fun pens to play with.
• Parker 51 Aerometric, black. There is just something wonderful about the ones with pristine frosted steel or gold filled caps.
• Montblanc 136/138/139 etc. Elegant simplicity.
• Swan 230/60. Another elegant piece there...
• Waterman's 55, 56 etc. in woodgrain pattern. More elegance.
• Sailor Pro Gear Realo.

I suppose I have to include the pen that I really do not like to use (at all) but which is otherwise rather pleasing to look at... enter the Lamy 2000 Stainless Steel. I would never buy one though. I do have one vintage/early production 2000 that I keep around, you know, just in case. I already ended up giving one modern one to my mother.

Edit: Forgot Sailor Pro Gear Realo from the list.

Edited October 4, 2019 by mana

[Jebus]

I find that mytical wishlist to change from time to time...

 

Although some tend to keep circling back:

• Iconic: Montblanc 149
• Material: Visconti HS Lava
• Art: Pelikan Toledo
• Pure juwelery: Pelikan MOP
• Engineering: Conid Bulkfiller

Some already in possesion, some not. But I assume the chase is better than the catch

[SchaumburgSwan]

Hi just three:

 

Mabie Todd Swan SF230 for it's Art Deco spirit, a tasteful and well balanced pen.

 

The early torpedo shaped pens: Schaeffer Balance, Mabie Todd Swan 4460 (also the Omas Moma later). Timeless and beautiful pens.

 

Mabie Todd Swan lizard skin pens, like the green L312/88.

 

Best

Jens

[ENewton]

Nakaya Piccolo, shobu. I don't buy such expensive pens, but this is my favorite design.

 

Parker 51 demi, plum. This is my favorite of the pens I own.

 

Pelikan 140 burgundy. I have the more common striped 140 and really like its shape and size, but the burgundy is much prettier.

 

Lamy 2000. Unfortunately, the balance of this pen is wrong for me, so I've never acquired one, but I like how it looks.

 

Waterman Lady Patricia Ink-Vue. I have never even seen one of these pens but they look lovely in photographs.

[jchch1950]

Many votes for the Lamy 2000. For sure is an excellent writer.

[praxim]

Given the question is about form, by looking at what I have I appear to favour flat or near-flat ended pens with a straight or very slightly longitudinally curved barrel, a section which does not step down, and an open nib. Pen and section should be medium girth. Colour, adornment and function were excluded in the question.

 

Despite that preference modality, I like the design of the Lamy 2000 (but it is closed nib) and generally dislike slim or torpedo / cigar pens with barrels tapering to a rounded point, e.g. Parker 51, Pelikan 140. Old Aurora 88 and the MB 146/149 styles survive in my affections by being not too slim and having advantages additional to form.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Design wise, what are your favourite pens? I'm not talking about functionality, piston vs convertor, how good it writes or how confortabile it is....not even if you like the color or pattern...Just purely from an esthetic point of view.

 

 

 

Well, but the color and pattern can be a big part of the esthetic attraction, as in two of my best looking vintage pens, a Parker Vacumatic and a Conway Stewart 388 with their beautiful (and flammable) vintage celluloids. Also, once I know that a pen has problems with writing quality or overall functionality, it loses most of its attractiveness until the problem can be fixed. But luckily there's a fairly large overlap between prettiness and functionality with the pens that I have.

 

But anyway, taking the question on its own terms, more or less, some of my favorite designs with pens that I actually own are:

 

• Pilot MYU. That clean, streamlined look and the way the nib is integrated into the section make it unlike anything else.
• Montblanc Noblesse. I like a fountain pen that dares to be slim, slimmer than many ballpoints.
• Parker Vacumatic, and this one's a favorite writer, too.
• Conway Stewart 388. Less of a favorite writer, but I do love that vintage celluloid, and the small size.
• Lamy 2000, "Makrolon" version. Love that clean, simple look and the overall shape. And again a good writer.
• Pilot Capless Decimo. The rarity and practicality of a pushbutton retractable fountain pen is the real selling point, but I also think it's quite an attractive design.

I could mention others, but that will do for now.

[Orval]

Those that I use and find the most confortable:

Conid Minimalistica Delrin, Omas 360, Pilot VP, Sheaffer legacy

One that I'me dreaming of but never tried:

Montblanc Hemingway

[fphilipp]

Pens that I consider to be very good (meaning: functional) designs are

Aurora 88P (and 88) - vintage: excellent balance both capped and uncapped; holds a lot of ink (piston filler); good sized ink window; light weight; slip cap; and all of this (incl a very good 14K nib) for less than 100 USD if you are willing to spend some time searching

Franklin Christoph model 20: body length and section girth are ideal to my hands; tactile experience; slip cap (which unfortunately mack suck ink from body)

Lamy 2000: enough info on the forum

[Bo Bo Olson]

I won't say beautiful...not in the slick classy way of my Geha 725. Striking is a better term.

 

My wife took me to my B&M to buy me a pen for my Birthday....It was having a real big sale on harder to move items, a Aurora Verdi (there are very, very many different ones of them, as I found out when I went looking for that real fancy pen... ), a Pelikan of it's Time....And this one drew me from ten yards out.

 

A very Striking Pen...MB Virginia Woolf....I got it for 1/3 off.......if I'd not used it, only five years later I could have sold it as NOS for original price.

 

There was the small print I forgot, ours..........like in our bank account. I couldn't afford a new used and affordable pen, a bottle of ink or a good paper for some 9 months.

 

Picture with permission of Pentime............and I really like the My Eyes Only nib bling.

The the outside of teh clip is sort of beveled, the inner part of the clip is matted gold around the tiny ruby. It is of course butter smooth...

My 605 stubbed B is about to run out of ink...might as well take it out of it's vintage brown backilite wristband jewelry case. Loaded with MB Toffee brown a shading ink.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[ak47]

My favorite is omas 360 old type

[senzen]

I like Pelikans, Lamy Studios, Parker 75s and silver pearl Vacumatics; pearwood makes Faber Castell Ambitions go from nice to gorgeous. I finally got a Waterman Carène, beautiful. I chased it for so long I started dreaming about wood and demonstrator finishes; not going to happen but it was a nice dream!

 

I have all of these, accumulated very slowly, except for the Vacumatic, which represents a risk of being too small for me. I wouldn't mind a Ciselé 75.

[Honeybadgers]

Pelikan M200/400, Lamy CP1, Lamy 2000, Pilot custom 823, and probably the wahl eversharp doric

Edited October 7, 2019 by Honeybadgers