Confessions of a Spanish Pen Addict. III.

The third and last article of the Confessions of a Spanish Pen Addict appeared in issue 77 (nominally April 2026) of Shumi-no Bungubako (趣味の文具箱). I say final because I have decided to discontinue this collaboration due to the strict internal censorship that forms part of the magazine's editorial policy.

The ostensibly subversive subject of these particular Confessions is the story of the Presidente pens marketed in Spain around 1960. The original text reads as follows:


A Very Spanish Pen (Made in Japan)

In Madrid, every Sunday an immense and ever-growing flea market takes place along Ribera de Curtidores street. And, as in most street markets, what someone else might discard is for you to buy. There, at one stall, I saw an array of unused fountain pens, neatly arranged. They were claimed to be Presidente, a minor Spanish brand legally registered by a certain Doroteo Pérez y Pérez, whose business was located at number 8, Calle del Príncipe Pío, Madrid, in 1959.

The luxury Presidente. Photo by Tommy Lanceley

In actual fact, however, those pens proved to be Platinum pens.

Further research in Spain showed that there appear to be only three models of Presidente pens, albeit with some color variations―black, grey, red, and blue. All three feature the Platinum globe logo with the letters S and N (after Shun-ichi Nakata, 中田俊一, founder of Platinum) engraved on the cap and on the nib. One of them even carries the name Platinum engraved on the nib, whereas the other two are imprinted with the brand name “PRESIDENTE” above the Platinum logo. In any event, the Spanish brand is always prominently engraved on the barrel: “PRESIDENTE / Registrada.” Inside, the filling system also bears the Spanish brand, together with instructions on how to fill the pen, written in imperfect Spanish.

Presidente and Platinum logo.

All of them are aerometric fillers―bladder type with an internal compensation tube― with nail-shaped steel nibs, very similar to the Honest models made by Platinum in the early 1950s. Those models evolved into the Honest 60 in 1956–57, when Platinum decided to say “farewell to ink bottles” and marketed the first ink cartridges in Japan, thus abandoning self-filling mechanisms.

In 2013, at the now-discontinued Mitsukoshi Stationery Festa, the seasoned Platinum craftsman Mr. Masayoshi Nakanishi (中西正好) examined my Presidente pens. He immediately recognized them as Platinum products:

“Oh, that was the luxury model! Be careful with the clip, as it is a bit fragile.”

At the same time, however, he explained that there were no company records of contacts or transactions dating so far back. Consequently, Platinum as a company could not say much―if anything―about these somehow Spanish Platinum pens: pens bearing engravings and instructions in Spanish, sometimes incorrect Spanish.

Publishing this information online prompted several fellow aficionados from around the world to share their own knowledge. We then found out that there had been other cases of foreign-branded Platinum pens besides the Spanish one. In South Africa, the brand Hifra marketed similar models dating from the 1950s, as well as more modern Platinum “pocket pens” later in the 1960s. In Greece, the brand Joker also used a couple of Platinum models in its operations. In this latter case, the pen box carried two brand names―Joker and Platinum.

Honest models by Joker (top), Hifra (middle), and Presidente (bottom).

Joker AND Platinum.

Were there more operations like these? In the absence of written records in Platinum’s archives, it is not possible to decide one way or the other. We do know, however, that such operations existed and that they had a very loose connection to Platinum in Japan.

Once again, the pen community proved to be essential in providing information beyond what official records might reveal. There is always something hidden in plain view at flea markets around the world.

I am merely the writer of this story, populated by a number of characters. Eduardo Alcalde, Miguel Huineman, Salvador Maturana, Toshiaki Sugimoto (杉本寿明), Kostas Kouvaris, Alberto Linares, and Masa Sunami (すなみまさみち) contributed by offering information and expertise.

RomilloPens Wi Toledo – Pilot (Thai) Black

Bruno Taut
January 2026 and March 17th 2026
etiquetas: Platinum, Presidente, Joker, Hifra, publicaciones