Jonathan Steinberg's Collectables Website

1797 Article from HISTORY OF INVENTIONS

What to Look for in the High End of Fountain Pens: 
This is an extract from an article first published in Pen World magazine (when that magazine used to print articles about vintage , as opposed to modern, pens) which gave some pointers concerning what makes pens valuable at the high end. 

Hints and Tips for New Collectors: 
This page will show new collectors how to negotiate for fountain pens. 

To read about the development of the fountain pen, including the part played by various fountain pen companies, see Pen Development. 

To understand Why People Like Writing with Vintage Pens and other matters of general interest (including files submitted by other collectors), visit the matters of interest. 

Please e-mail me if you like double-jewelled Parker Vacumatic Maximas or Oversizes with flexible nibs sales@vintagepen.com

Supplies page / general terms    

Metal Pens: List of Available (or potential?) Metal Pens 

Hard Rubber Pens: List of Available (or potential?) Plastic or Hard Rubber Pens 

Wrist Watches: List of Available Wrist Watches 

Classic Cars: List of Available Classic Cars 

Pens in book: List of Pens in Fountain Pen book which may still be available

Pen Categories: Learn about the development of the fountain from the earliest days to the present 

Pen Categories: Is what you are looking at or being offered worth real money? 

Pen Categories: You have never seen this companies' name before, or you are being offered it from another country: Is this a major manufacturer? 

Pen Categories: This pen looks suspiciously cheap: Is it worth buying to keep as the centrepiece of my collection?  

Pen Categories: The pen I am being offered is in my price range. Where does the company fit in the overall scheme of things? I don't want to pay more than about $1000 for any pen  

Pen Categories: Which companies should I avoid? Someone calls me and raves about some company I have never heard of. Is he hyping a piece of junk? 

Pen Categories: See where in a pen companies' life-cycle the piece you are looking at fits 

Wrist Watches: An article showing what to look for as far a vintage wrist watches 
An article showing which types of classic car have the best investment potential Classic Cars: 

This site was designed in conjunction with Inert Employers Co. Send comments to sales@vintagepen.com Please note that due to time pressures etc it is unlikely that I will be able to respond to generally expressed e-mail, or mail on fountain pens which are described as being of minimal value 

The author (for it is he!) Hereby apologises for the lousy (relatively) graphic-less quality of this web site which, it is humbly submitted to the cyber-ensembled cyber-crowd, is self-evidently still very much under construction, or at least is some place close thereto. 

He craves the indulgence of the aforesaid cyber-mass and earnestly expresses the heartfelt hope that this site will in time become a veritable feast for the eyes when he manages to negotiate a sufficient bank loan and thereby gets around to shelling out for an appropriate HTML checking software package so's he can correct the endemic pathetic errors which mark him out, at least, as possibly not being quite the right brand of computer-nerd who could have done the task of writing this page properly. 

Cognoscenti and those generally partial to a nice bit of schadenfreude here and there may care to reflect on the aptness under the circumstances of the adage (albeit suitably updated) that the blaze in your neighbour's hayrick doesn't necessarily warm the tea in your samovar     

"Had he not loved honour more  

He would have loved it less"  

© Copyright 2003, 

Inert Employers Co. 

All Rights Reserved.  

Inert Employers, Licensed to Quill ® are registered trademarks of Jonathan Steinberg esq.

Has anyone seen this small-format hard cover book?  Or one like it in any language?    Please feel free to e-mail me if you have seen it or if you have bought a copy pens@vintagepen.com