Books - please recommend a couple

[Tommaso Santojanni]

Good morning.

 

I'm new to this passion, sparked inherited some old and very old fountain pens and finding my old school pens.

 

May I ask to recommend 2 or 3 books about vintage fountain pens (nothing past 1970)? 

 

I'm interested only in books for reference, rather than for pleasure in reading (I dislike reading 🤷🏻‍♂️).

 

Please recommend in this order of priority:

 

1. Offer lots of images

2. Offer reference and help to understand and catalogue brands and models (no single brand or single model books).

3. Offer models' history, models' variations (colours, nibs, size, etc), models' value, models' historical importance, models' writing characteristics, etc

4. Books intended to be used as a guide, reference and catalogue rather than entertainment.

 

I am also interested in websites with the same characteristics (not single brand/model).

 

Any help with starting this vintage/antique hobby/passion, from a generic perspective, would be very much appreciated as the objective is to develop my own taste and preference to build my own collection by adding half dozen more pens that I find beautiful, but also that have attained iconic status and possess historical significance for having introduced an innovation or being considered a milestone.

 

Thank you in advance for your help and advice. 

 

Tommaso

 

PS: I inherited/found these

1. MB Meisterstuck 146 solid gold 1974

2. MB Meisterstuck 149 Calligraphy nib (198?)

3. Pelikan green stripes 400NN

4. Parker Duofold (brown "striped") (193?)

5. Parker 51 push button gold cap, burgundy body

6. Pelikan steel nib school model black cap, green body pre-1974

7. Parker 75 first series cisele

8. Parker 75 first series gold (thin stripes) 

9. Parker 75 first series gold kgrained texture) 

10 - 14. Sheaffer with nib inserted in grip set of 3 gold/brown stripes (a) lady pen (very thin - special filler), (b) normal size and (c) mechanical pencil. Another similar nib inserted in grip but with a steel nib & body

15 Pilot made of plastic pre-1974

[Marioferu]

https://parkerpens.net/apis.html

[Claes]

Ciao, Tomasso!

 

https://www.fountainpen.it/Main_Page

https://pencollectorsofamerica.org/reference-library/

 

Cordiali Saluti,

Claes a Lund, Svezia

 

 

[Tommaso Santojanni]

7 hours ago, Marioferu said:

https://parkerpens.net/apis.html

Thank you. While this is mono brand, it can be of use. A YouTube video showed a book that described all Watermans vintage pens. Is there a similar resource also for Watermans?

[Tommaso Santojanni]

7 hours ago, Claes said:

Ciao, Tomasso!

 

https://www.fountainpen.it/Main_Page

https://pencollectorsofamerica.org/reference-library/

 

Cordiali Saluti,

Claes a Lund, Svezia

 

 

Thank you. This is useful. Grazie mille.

 

Any recommendations for paper books (not mono-brand) that can be used as references?

Edited July 29, 2024 by Tommaso Santojanni

[Claes]

https://pencollectorsofamerica.org/reference-library/waterman/

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20240722165248/http://www.waterman-pen.ru/

 

[Tommaso Santojanni]

Any recommendation for books?

 

[Claes]

No 😉

 

If you need the info on paper: print it out yourself :-)))))

 

[PPPR]

Here's a link to a list of books with comments by someone quite knowledgeable:

https://vintagepens.com/books.shtml

 

You can also search the fora here. Copy and paste the phrase below with your search terms appended. There are plenty of suggestions.

 

https://www.google.com/m?q=site%3Afountainpennetwork.com

 

HTH

[fabri00]

https://www.tenpen.it/taxonomy/term/135

[Bo Bo Olson]

The 1989 Andreas Lambrou, Fountain Pens, Vintage and Modern, is rated as better than the second edition. It is $$$, even used..But a Must Have book.

I'd copied megs and megs of info from the com...that did me no good. This book if the basic book of international fountain pens.

Suddenly I could get a real idea of what the hell was going on.

[Tommaso Santojanni]

On 8/1/2024 at 1:24 AM, PPPR said:

Here's a link to a list of books with comments by someone quite knowledgeable:

https://vintagepens.com/books.shtml

 

You can also search the fora here. Copy and paste the phrase below with your search terms appended. There are plenty of suggestions.

 

https://www.google.com/m?q=site%3Afountainpennetwork.com

 

HTH

Apologies for the delayed reply.

 

Thank you. This list seems interesting. Which one, do you feel, discussed or suggests milestone pens and famous or collectibles pens?

 

I wish you a wonderful & relaxing  summer. 

 

Tommaso

[OCArt]

Do you know about literature map?  You type in the name of an author and it will show you a graphic of related wrtiers.  Here's the link.

[Tommaso Santojanni]

On 8/1/2024 at 3:50 PM, fabri00 said:

https://www.tenpen.it/taxonomy/term/135

 

Thank you for the recommendation. These seem to be very interesting, but limited to Italian pens. Again, thank you for posting advice.

 

 

On 8/3/2024 at 11:54 PM, Bo Bo Olson said:

The 1989 Andreas Lambrou, Fountain Pens, Vintage and Modern, is rated as better than the second edition. It is $$$, even used..But a Must Have book.

I'd copied megs and megs of info from the com...that did me no good. This book if the basic book of international fountain pens.

Suddenly I could get a real idea of what the hell was going on.

 

Thank you! I'm going to buy this book! 

 

I found one on eBay for £20 plus postage. I bought it and I will receive it in September. 

 

Grazie!

 

 

On 8/16/2024 at 12:59 AM, OCArt said:

Do you know about literature map?  You type in the name of an author and it will show you a graphic of related wrtiers.  Here's the link.

 

Thank you. No, I did not know of this tool. I tried a few authors but it couldn't find them.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Some of mine. If the author is noted one might find an English translation.

Probably Martini's book.

........................could be the one in three languages.

.......................

............................

This one is a German edition of the 1989 version, reputed to be better than the next  later edition. Is to be had in English...a must have book....$$$

...............

Pen repair books.

'Pen Repair' by Marshal and Oldfield, I have Ed two, there is an ed 3 out.

 

Frank Dubil's, Fountain pens, the complete guide to repair and restoration was one of the first pen books of this century or last pen book of the last.

It has one major problem, he says use nail polish to put a sac on a pen, when one should use shellac. The book by Marshall and Oldfield is better by far.

[mke]

On 8/16/2024 at 7:59 AM, OCArt said:

You type in the name of an author and it will show you a graphic of related wrtiers.

I typed in Mark Twain and it showed me Ray Bradbury and William Shakespeare. 🤔

[inkstainedruth]

I looked at the link that OCArt provided and besides those two, it showed Ayn Rand, John Steinbeck, Edgar Allan Poe, and a host of others (including -- presumably somewhat close for a reason -- Alexandre Dumas, Jack London, Leo Tolstoy,  Maya Angelou and Dante...).    And a host of other authors (further away) including Thomas Jefferson, Raymond Chandler, Jack Kerouac and Dr. Seuss....

Now, some of those authors I've read.  Others?  Not so much....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Tommaso Santojanni]

On 8/26/2024 at 12:00 AM, Bo Bo Olson said:

Some of mine. If the author is noted one might find an English translation.

Probably Martini's book.

........................could be the one in three languages.

.......................

............................

This one is a German edition of the 1989 version, reputed to be better than the next  later edition. Is to be had in English...a must have book....$$$

...............

Pen repair books.

'Pen Repair' by Marshal and Oldfield, I have Ed two, there is an ed 3 out.

 

Frank Dubil's, Fountain pens, the complete guide to repair and restoration was one of the first pen books of this century or last pen book of the last.

It has one major problem, he says use nail polish to put a sac on a pen, when one should use shellac. The book by Marshall and Oldfield is better by far.

 

@Bo Bo Olson, thank you,

I appreciate both your time and expertise and your continued help. I just purchased 1989 Andreas Lambrou, Fountain Pens, Vintage and Modern as recommended by you. It should arrive in a week or so and I am interested to purchase a couple more.

From your list above, please, which focus more on:
 

1. Images

2. Explaining WHY a pen is collectible or what milestone it achieved or innovation it introduced?

3. Models' history, models' variations (colours, nibs, size, etc), models' value, models' writing characteristics, etc

4. Referencing and cataloguing models rather than being written for entertainment purposes.

At this point in time, I am not focusing on repair, so that aspect is not relevant. For repairs I am currently entrusting Tom Westerich in Italy, Pens Plus of Oxford and Gerhard at Füllhalter Zentrale in Germany.

Again, thank you. I am sure that this thread will remain useful also for future forum visitors.

Tommaso

[Bo Bo Olson]

They are not as detailed as you wish, more just make and model. The better internet blogs gives you much more and better info to when the pen was made and how it was nibbed.

More pretty pictures, but I must admit I seldom spend much time looking at the books after my first few days of the enthusiasm...out side that Lambrou book...that is now falling apart from use.

That big thick three language book , ended up being slightly underwhelming, from my hopes. Three languages takes up their spaces. 

 

It don't really matter that Martini's book is out of date on prices being from DM days...well over 30 years ago. Many pictures in black and white.

It dates well....just found out my cheap enough Waterman Gothic I got for well less than €150 plus inkwell was worth 400DM in 1995.

My 1959 MB Meisterstuck 14 was worth 100DM...I got away with a steal of €70 today, 30 years later.

Combine the Lambrau and Martini books and you are good to go.

[Tommaso Santojanni]

Thank you, I will follow your advice. For now I purchased and read Steinbrough and Lambrou. Very useful. And interesting.