North Korea (I)

North Korea had already shown up on these Chronicles—at the Pilot’s Pen Station there was an inkwell by the name of GuangMyung made in Pyongyang. That, I said at that time, was only normal as pens and inks were basic writing tools for years. But that left an obvious question open: did North Korea ever made fountain pens?

The answer is yes—there existed a North Korean production of pens.

The first example are some clear copies of one of the most iconic pens of all times—the Parker 51. No surprise on this, as this model has been copied over and over, even today.

Two North Korean copies of the Parker 51.

The black model implements a gold nib. On the cap lip it says "CHULLIMA".

The inscription on the nib reads "천리마 (Chollima) / 12 K".

These North Korean pens are aerometric fillers. One of them implements a steel nib, while the other’s is made of 12 K gold. They seem to have been produced around 1960. They are branded as “Chullima”, albeit the sign on the gold nib –천리마— reads “Chollima”, referring to the mythological horse Chollima, that gave name to the Chollima Movement of economic development in North Korea in 1956.

The red unit is of worse quality.

The nib is not only made of steel, but also shows a poorer construction if compared to the gold unit we saw before. The aerometric system is engraved with a "Made in Korea" sign.

On another Chronicle I will describe other North Korean pens, this time a lot less obvious.

My thanks to Mr. Sunami.


NOTE (Nov 10, 2020): Fellow blogger Tefolium made an excellent research on the origin of a number of fountain pen operations in countries with strong ties with the People's Republic of China. Among them, those in North Korea. You can read it here: https://tefolium.blogspot.com/2020/11/20201106-updated-socialist-countries.html?m=1

Fit de Bayard 840 – Waterman Blue-black

Bruno Taut
Atami, January 2nd, 2015
labels: Corea del Norte, Parker, Chullima

Swan's Big Red

Japanese Swan pens –those made by Nobuo Ito— are already known on these Chronicles. This company based its success in Japan on coping the Mabie Todd’s Swan catalog for the domestic market. Well, Nobuo Ito also had the support of Japanese courts of Justice. The domestic success was big, and the Japanese Swan became the biggest pen company in Japan around 1915.

But despite this success and the presumably large number of Swan pens produced, they are not common finds in the market. So, any find, especially if in good condition, is of interest.

This Swan pen is a copycat of the well known Parker Duofold Big Red from the 1920s. but this a Japanese pen, as the filling system shows—this is an eyedropper pen with a shut-off valve operated from the tail. The pen is labeled on the barrel as “SWAN PEN / MY PRESENT”, together with the company logo, all too similar to that of the Anglo-American company.

The pen is made of ebonite. The nib, of 14 K gold. The production date is about 1930. These are its dimensions:

• Length closed: 132 mm
• Length open: 126 mm
• Length posted: 170 mm
• Diameter: 15.5 mm
• Weight: 28.4 g (dry)

The imprint on the nib reads "SWAN / IDEAL / PEN / 14 K".

"SWAN PEN / MY PRESENT". My present?

It is interesting to note that this pen has no indication about having been made in Japan, contrary to some other examples of this brand. Nonetheless, the filling system does show, as mentioned before, this as a Japanese fountain pen.


My thanks to Mr. Furuya.

Waterman Crusader – Platinum Black

Bruno Taut
Nakano, October 30th 2014
etiquetas: Swan Japan, Parker, Mabie Todd Swan

Hawaiian Vacumatic

Many Chronicles ago I described an interesting fake—a so-called Hawaiian pen copying the well known Sheaffer Balance in green celluloid. That fake even carried the white dot of Sheaffer’s lifetime guarantee.

The Hawaiian Balance in green celluloid. An obvious copycat of the Sheaffer Balance.

Not much could I say about that pen or about the manufacturer. And not much can I say now save offering another element labeled as Hawaiian.

In this case, this isolated nib shows a typical Parker decoration—that of the popular Vacumatic model. But the imprint says exactly the same as we had already seen on the Hawaiian Balance: “Hawaiian / PRACTICAL / GOLDEN PEN / -<5>- / S.Y.S Co.”. And as in the previous case, this nib is not tipped.

Another Hawaiian nib, this time with a Parker-inspired decoration.

The untipped nib.

There are apparently no records on this pen company and we cannot even claim it was Japanese as some suspect it was.

My thanks to Mr. Suginaga.

Gama (Gem Pen & Co., Chennai), unknown model – Indian-made royal blue ink

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, December 31st, 2013
etiquetas: Parker, Hawaiian, Sheaffer

Between Parker and Waterman

At the early stages of the development of a new industry there is always a proliferation of small companies fighting for their place under the sun. And also during those early stages, copies of successful products are in order.

The following pen follows those patterns. Brand Rifleman is known as an early name of pens in Japan, but not much more is available. This large unit is very well made.

As many Japanese pens at the time –late 1920s and early 1930s— it is an eyedropper pen with shut-off valve made of ebonite. The nib is made of 14 K gold, and is remarkably large.

The engraving on the nib reads "WARRANTED / K14 / IRIDIUM / POINT / PEN"

The feed is characteristic of pre-war Japanese pens, and it does not resemble the tree-shaped feed of the Parker Duofold.

The external appearance resembles that of the American icons at the time—the Parker Duofold. But do not expect to find any Lucky Curve feed inside. The clip, however, shows a curious engraving: “CAP CLIP”. Was it inspired by Waterman’s “Clip Cap”?

The clip is clearly carries the Waterman-inspired engraving "CAP CLIP".

These are the dimensions of this Rifleman:

• Length closed: 135 mm
• Length open: 132 mm
• Length posted: 177 mm
• Diameter: 15 mm

On the tail of the pen, the blind cap is just the knob to open the shut-off valve instead of hiding the push button to operate the rubber sac of the old Duofolds. The barrel is engraved with the brand name "RIFLEMAN / FOUNTAIN PEN".

My thanks to Mr. Sunami

Pilot Myu 701 – Platinum Black

Bruno Taut
Machida, October 8th, 2013
etiquetas: Rifleman, Parker, Waterman

The Many Names of Platinum. Piiton

Platinum dates its origin in 1919 when Shunichi Nakata open a shop in Okayama to sell imported pens. In 1924 he moved to Tokyo and founded the company Nakaya Seisakusho (Nakaya Works), and in 1928 the company was renamed as Platinum Pen Company. However, the name Nakaya Seisakusho remained imprinted on its pens for a number of years. Platinum as a brand name was not the only one used by the company of Mr. Nakata. Some pens destinated to foreign markets were named as 555 and PPP to avoid confusion with the English company Platignum.

Another minor brand name during those early years was Piiton. The following is an example, now hard to find, of those Nakata’s pens from the 1920s.

This Piiton pen is made of ebonite, and has a 14 K gold nib. The filling system is by eyedropper with a shut-off valve, although externally it is an obvious copy of the at the time successful Parker Duofold.

The pen name is clearly imprinted on the pen—on the barrel together with the traditional Platinum globe logo with the initials of the founder; on the nib; and on the clip.

"TRADE MARK / THE PIITON (globe logo) FOUNTAIN PEN / TOKYO JAPAN S. N. & CO."

The engraving on the nib reads "PIITON / 14 KT / GOLD / PEN".

On the clip, simply "PIITON".

These are the dimensions of the pen:

• Length closed: 126 mm
• Length open: 116 mm
• Length posted: 165 mm
• Diameter: 13 mm
• Weight (dry): 16.2 g

My thanks to Mr. Sunami.

Pilot Capless CS-200RW – Platinum Black

Bruno Taut
Shinjuku, October 17th, 2013
etiquetas: Platinum, Piiton, Parker

Rarities

Some weeks ago I included the picture of an ad by Pilot on pens marketed in 1978. It was perfect to illustrate the pen under analysis –a Custom Grandee with a music nib. But the ad also displayed another pen—the all-steel Pilot Murex. But although marketed on the same year, their fates have been very different.

The Pilot ad from 1978.

The Custom Grandee was intended as a more luxurious product. It implemented a 14 K gold nib and there were seven different nib points available, including a three-tined music nib. The price was JPY 7000.

On the other hand, the Pilot Murex was more of a rarity—an all-steel pen with nib and section integrated in the same piece of steel. It followed the path lead by the Parker T1 and, more successfully, the Pilot Myu 701. The Murex had only two very rigid nib points—F and M. Its price was JPY 5000.

Now, thirty five years later, we pay a lot more attention to the rarity than to the luxurious functionality. And I am no innocent at this game as I wrote about the Murex a lot earlier than about the Custom Grandee, and when I finally described the later I did so by focusing my attention on another rarity, the unusual music nib.

The Parker 51 must be included in any book on the history of pens, and many a collector will have it,. However, the collector will pay attention to that very scarce color or variation that in actual terms is mostly irrelevant.

Collecting, this shows, deals more with the unusual than with history; more with the rarity than with the well-proven technical characteristics. And only a handful of true icons appeared on both lists: those made by collectors and by historians.

And this also shows that a history of pens written by a die-hard collector might be very biased towards those rarities that very few could have.

Pilot Capless CS-200RW – Platinum Black

Bruno Taut
Shinjuku, October 13th, 2013
etiquetas: Pilot, mercado, libro, estilofilia, Parker

Matching (XIII)

The controversy is always there: Is that pen original or a copy of another? Which company did father that idea? Sometimes, the answers are clear…

This Platinum pen is, in essence, a copy of the well-known and highly valued Waterman’s Hundred Year pen from 1939. The Platinum is, as well, a lever filler. Its nib, however, is a “10-years” nib made of stainless steel.

This is not the first example of a copy cat made by Platinum seen on these Chronicles. Another “10-years” pen was a knock-off of the Parker 51, and by the 1940s, Platinum manufactured a copy of the Skyline model by Wahl-Eversharp. This trend, of this learning process, ended up in the late 1950s, although some might say that it was revived with the current model 3776, so close to the Montblanc balance pen.

The "10-Years" nib made of stainless steel.
The incription reads as follows:
"PLATINUM / 10 YEARS / S*N Platinum logo / IRIDIUM / JIS logo / -< 5 >- / P-A".

My thanks to Mr. Sunami.

Pilot Vpen – Pilot Blue

Bruno Taut
Chuo (Tokyo), March 3rd, 2013
etiquetas: Parker, Platinum, Waterman, Wahl-Eversharp, Montblanc

Rhetorical Question (I)

Recently, a friend confessed –yes, that is the right word— that she had purchased a luxury mechanical pencil for the amount of JPY 1575 (about EUR 16 or USD 17), and that was expensive. Sure enough, to any normal person, to any healthy mind, any writing tool over EUR 10 (or USD 10, or JPY 1000), is expensive. We stylophiles are the abnormal ones in here, and we might need to rethink our perceptions on what is cheap or expensive in our small world.

Lamy Safari, JPY 3800. Cartridge-converter. Converter not included.

Parker IM, JPY 2900. Cartridge-converter. Converter not included.

Pilot Prera, JPY 3500. Converter included.

Twsbi Diamond 540, USD 40. Piston filler.

Case in point—can we really say that a EUR 30 fountain pen is an entry level fountain pen? Can we seduce any sane person into buying a writing tool that is about 10 times more expensive than those regular pens he might use?

Sailor Profit Junior, music nib – Diamine Graphite

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, January 30th, 2013
labels: mercado, estilofilia, Lamy, Parker, Pilot, Twsbi

Matching (XII)

The controversy is always there: Is that pen original or a copy of another? Which company did father that idea? Sometimes, the answers are clear…

Platinum’s “10-years” nibs are not new on these chronicles. Those were, let us remember, steel nibs manufactured in the 1950s, at the time of the implementation of the Japan Industrial Standards (JIS) norm by the Ministry of Industry. This norm aimed at providing some reliability on the claims made by manufacturing companies about their own products. In the case of fountain pens, the problems were mostly related to the nib material.

The de-luxe "10-years" pen, as the engraving on the barrel says. The cap is gold filled and displays the sign "NK14 PLATINUM".

“10-years” pens; that is, equipped with these steel nibs; came in a number of sized and shapes. The most popular was the Honest model, already mentioned on these texts.

Parker 51 (top) and Platinum "10-Years" (bottom), side to side.

Both pens, disassembled. The section of the Platinum pen is faceted, and that is the major external difference between these pens.

Another example is this copy of the very popular Parker 51 model. This Platinum was a de luxe model given its gold filled cap, in contrast with the steel nib. The filling system is a very reliable aerometric, just like the most popular version of the American original.

Nib and feed of the Parker on top. The Platinum pen uses a different structure to hold them together. Platinum used a hollow cylinder made of plastic. The following photographs shows these parts disassembled.

The similarities with the Parker 51 are not just on the looks. Not only the nib is hooded, but also the structure of the platinum pen is very close to that of the aerometric 51—the whole pen is held together by a central ring to which both the feed and the filling system are attached. The nib, however, does not have the cylindrical shape of the American model and is kept in place with respect to the feed by means of a plastic cylinder.

The Platinum "10-Years" almost fully disassembled. The nib-feed system can be seen at the bottom of the picture.

These are the dimensions of this Platinum 10-Years and of the Parker 51 (aerometric):
Length closed: .......140 mm. ................. 139.5 mm
Length open: .........127.5 mm. ............... 128.0 mm.
Diameter: ..............12.5 mm. ................. 12.5 mm.
Dry weight: .............17.4 g. ...................... 21.5 g.

This pen, with eventual very minor differences, was marketed outside Japan under the name of some local brands. Such was the case of Italy or Greece, using the brand name of Joker, and of South Africa, branded as Hifra. But this should be the topic of a different text.

Pilot Bamboo – unknown blue ink

Bruno Taut
Madrid, December 5th, 2012
etiquetas: Parker, Platinum, Hifra, Joker, Japón

At the Museum (III)

(As seen at the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Literature).

YOSHIYA Nobuko (吉屋信子, 1896-1973) was an active, and popular, novelist between the 1910s and the 1970s. She specialized in romance novels and was a pioneer in class-S—a very Japanese genre in which a primary argument are strong bonds between girls. She herself revealed her homosexuality in her novel Two Virgins in the Attic (Yaneura no nishojo, 屋根裏の二處女, 1919).

The Parker 51 with her name engraved on the barrel.

A large number of her pens were on display at the exhibit. Some, indeed interesting: from a Parker 51 engraved with her name to a lever filler in green celluloid by Waterman to a safety pen with a silver overlay by the same company.

A Waterman lever filler in green celluloid.

A Waterman safety pen in red hard rubber with silver overlay.

However, the pens that attracted my attention the most were two frankenpens: an all Montblanc pen with body (model 12) and cap not matching, and an improbable combination of a Montblanc 252 body with a Platinum cap. I guess she was really attached to these pens. Maybe they were excellent writers and she kept using them after having misplaced the caps…

A Montblanc 12 with a mismatched cap.

The impossible frankenpen--a Montblanc 252 with a Platinum cap.

Whether Yoshiya was a collector or a user we do not know. A total of eight pens of her were handled to the museum, including those two chimeras. Enough to choose among!

(Muji aluminum pen – Diamine Teal)

Bruno Taut
March 3rd, 2012
[labels: Montblanc, estilofilia, Japón, evento, Waterman, Parker]