Size Matters

Pens, fountain pens were not only a tool but a symbol of status. Beyond the need to write there is also the effect of displaying the tool. Therefore, not all pens were created equal, and among those less equal, pens with large nibs truly attract the attention of other users if only because of the amount of gold needed to craft them.

The appeal continues—those large nibs were not that common and rarity is always a powerful argument for collectors. On these chronicles we have seen some outstanding examples of large nibs. A couple of impressive size 10 by Waterman, property of nibmeister Yamada, set indeed a very high standard.

The beautiful and simple looking size 8 nib by Pilot.

How did Japanese companies deal with this need to show affluence? Maki-e decoration was one of the arguments, and it worked well even outside Japan, as the success of the Dunhill-Namiki joint venture shows. Some of those nibs sported some really big nibs —size 50— that are now revived on modern Namiki pens.

On this picture, the star on the inner (and lower) cylinder is clearly visible.

But those were not the only examples of big nibs. Earlier in time, in the 1920s, Pilot created nibs as big as size 8 and implemented them in combination of the very unique hoshiawase system to prevent ink leaks from their eyedropper pens. This particular combination is very rare to find, and is priced accordingly.

A well preserved BCHR pen, albeit there is some oxidation on the cap.

This is a large pen made of hard rubber, and is decorated with a subtle and attractive pattern (BCHR):

Length closed: 148 mm.
Length open: 141 mm.
Length posted: 190 mm.
Diameter: 13.5 mm.

My thanks to Ms. Jade and Mr. Nikos Syrigonakis.

Push in celluloid, lever filler – Pelikan Royal blue

Bruno Taut
September 2nd, 2012
labels: Pilot, plumín, estilofilia

Icons in Japan

I can think of very few truly iconic pens in Japan. On the contrary, in the West it seems that all major brands have one or several icons that both identify and symbolize their glory—Parker 51, Sheaffer’s PFM, Waterman Patrician,… They all are well known and documented, and it is not too difficult to find them as they were produced in fairly big numbers. Whether the price is high or low is a different question.

Two Parker 51: the one on top is an aerometric filler; that on bottom, vacumatic.

But in Japan, I was saying, the case seems different. Pilot’s Capless family of pens –more a concept than a single pen given the number of variations and evolutions along almost 50 years of history—is one of them. Another is the all metal pocket pen Myu 701, also made by Pilot. Both, Capless and Myu, fit the three characteristics previously mentioned: well known, well documented, relatively common.

Capless, Capless, Capless. Different models from the mid 1960s to the present time.

The obvious question is why these differences between Western and Japanese markets. Why didn’t other Japanese companies –other than Pilot, that is-- create true symbols of their brands? Is that something that is done on purpose? Is it a secondary effect of the great admiration for foreign pens Japanese stylophiles profess?

Pilot's M90 and Myu-701. The former is the modern re-issue of the icon from the 1970s.

On another text I will speak about another possible icon, or almost-icon, in Japan.

Platinum Glamour – Sailor Sei-boku

Bruno Taut
July 7th, 2012
etiquetas: Pilot, Japón, estilofilia

At the Museum (V)

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

The pens I am showing today belonged to HOTTA Yoshie (堀田善衛, 1918-1998). His name might click on some science-fiction aficionados’ minds by nothing that he, together with FUKUNAGA Takehiko (福永武彦, 1918-1979) and NAKAMURA Shinichiro (中村真一郎, 1918-1997), authored the seminal novel of the character Mothra (Mosura, モスラ) in 1961: The Luminous Fairies and Mothra (発光妖精とモスラ, Hakko Yosei to Mosura, originally published as a serial novel in Asahi Weekly in 1961, republished in 1994).

An Onoto with a size 5 nib.

Hotta was also an Akutagawa Prize winner in 1951 for his novel Loneliness in the Square (広場の孤独, Hiroba-no kodoku). In 1977, he received the Osaragi Jirô Award for his comprehensive biography of Spanish painter Francisco de Goya (ゴヤ, Goya, 1974-1977).

A Pelikan 500.

The Kugel extra fine nib.

The B nib of Pelikan 400.

His better known work, however, is Judgment (審判, Shinpan, 1963), a novel on the atomic bomb of Hiroshima.

A Pilot Custom in Sterling silver, and a Pilot Elite.

Regarding his pens, we see both European and Japanese units. An Onoto with a size 5 nib; three Pelikan, a Faber Castell, and two Pilot. On the Pelikan, an extra fine Kugel (KEF) and a B points.

(Sailor Profit Realo – Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown)

Bruno Taut
April 3rd, 2012
[labels: Faber-Castell, Pilot, Pelikan, Japón, evento, estilofilia, Onoto]

Size 10, by Waterman

Nibmeister Yamada is an avid, and brilliant, collector of early Waterman pens. His collection includes a couple of units with size-10 nibs—and unusual and spectacular nib. The pens are eyedroppers (model 20) with a large ink capacity.

Another view of the impressive collection of early Watermans of Mr. Yamada.

The two pens with size-10 nibs.

The two nibs have different engravings.

The 500-yen coin has a diameter of 26.5 mm, a bit over one inch.

In a sense, these Watermans would be the inspiration for the Japanese jumbo pens of the 1930s. However, their purposes were probably different—a symbol of status on the American pen, and a way to ease the grip in the case of the Japanese tools.

My thanks to Mr. Yamada.

(Aurora 88 – Pelikan 4001 Blue Black)

Bruno Taut
March 23th, 2012
[etiquetas: estilofilia, Waterman]

At the Museum (IV)

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

On this chronicle I am presenting the pens that belonged to another female writer –NAKAZATO Tsuneko (中里 恒子, 1909-1987). She was the first woman to be awarded with the Akutagawa price in 1938. However, the price had just been established in 1935.

Nakazato´s pens. At least, those shown at this exhibit.

The golden nib of the New Clip jumbo pen.

Her pens, as shown at the Museum of Modern Literature in Yokohama, were mostly Western, with the sole exception of a New Clip jumbo (manufactured by Fukunaka Seisakusho), with an ink deposit suitable for a very long novel. The rest were a Sheaffer snorkel, a Pelikan 120, and a couple of identical French-made Watermans.

The Pelikan 120. Nominally, a student pen.

The snorkel in the feed of the Sheaffer pen.

The two identical French Watermans.

A user or a collector? It does not really matter… User she was, and successful at that! Collector, maybe.

(Aurora 88 – Pelikan 4001 Blue black)

Bruno Taut
March 11th, 2012
[labels: New Clip, Waterman, Pelikan, Japón, evento, estilofilia, Sheaffer]

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]

At the Museum (II)

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


The pens I am showing today belonged to INOUE Yasushi (井上靖, 1907 – 1991). These are two Montblanc 146 from different times. The band aid on one of them shows that the writer really worked with it and that he was not concerned about the looks of the pen. I also had the chance to test this pen’s writing –really smooth, probably after years of use. It is probably a B point, which contradicts the idea of Japanese needing fine points to write very complex ideograms.


Inoue, like many other Japanese, preferred German brands over the rest, Japanese or not. This exhibit in Yokohama indeed showed that.

(Sailor Profit Realo – Athena Sepia)

Bruno Taut
February 7th, 2012
[labels: Montblanc, estilofilia, Japón]

At the Museum (I)

The Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Literature holds these days an original exhibit on Writers and Their Pens (from January 14th to February 26th). It is focused mostly on Japanese writers active on the second half of the twentieth century, albeit with some exceptions such as the very notable of SOSEKI Natsume (1867-1916).


Indeed, such a museum is a museum of fetishes. What truly matters of a writer is the final work. However, it is also fair to wonder how the tool would affect the work of art—would Tanizaki have written In Praise of Shadows ((陰翳礼讃, In'ei Raisan) on a keyboard? I guess not. “Elegance is frigid”, he said…

All stylophiles are fetishists. We value the tool over its actual function. What about writers themselves? Are they fetishists or mere users? An exhibit like this helps us to understand this question, no matter how irrelevant it might be to appreciate their work.

This is the first chronicle on some of the pens I had the chance to see and feel at the Museum.


Today I am showing this nice leather pen holder that belonged to SATOMI Ton (1888-1983). It was bought from the very prestigious shop of T. Tanizawa in Ginza, Tokyo. Inside, a Pelikan 400.


My thanks to Mr Niikura and Mr. Tarusawa, and to Mr. Kibo, chairman of the Museum.

(Pilot Super Ultra 500 – Athena Sepia)

Bruno Taut
February 6th, 2012
[labels: Pelikan, estilofilia, evento, Japón]

Family Portrait (I)

My first chronicle was entitled Metamorfosis, and it was about the internal change many of us, stylophiles, go through when we acquire a passion like this. It does not come without mixed feelings and I have already spoken about how many pen aficionados insist in being users over collectors … if not hoarders! On my side, I did give up some time ago—I am a collector, even if modest, and a hoarder.

Small family portrait: Four hoshiawase pens.

Then, the following family picture makes some sense. It displays my modest collection of Pilot hoshiawase pens from the 1920s. All four of them are late models, from between 1926 and 1928.


The latest arrival dated from August 1927. It has a 14 K gold nib in size 3, and the hard rubber body is chased. Its overall condition is fairly good.

The latest arrival.

These are its dimensions:
Diameter: 12 mm.
Length capped: 122 mm.
Length uncapped: 117 mm.
Length posted: 155 mm.
Weight: 12 g.


The hoshiawase system was finally dropped because it never worked well enough in its purpose to seal the ink deposit. Therefore, its interest nowadays lies more in its originality and rarity than on the actual functionality of these pens. But the temptation to use them is always present. How would the experience of writing with such a pen be?

(Sailor Profit Junior – Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-budo)

Bruno Taut
December 29th, 2011
[labels: Pilot, estilofilia]