A Guide to the Best of Southern California : ANTIQUES : Signature Collection

These days, the world measures the quality of word processors in RAM, ROM and megabytes. At the Fountain Pen Shop, in an office building just off Pershing Square since 1957, quality is more ephemeral--to say nothing of portable.

Besides the latest and priciest ($60 to $8,000) writing instruments--Parker, Pelikan, Waterman, Sheaffer and Mont Blanc are the headliners--owner Fred Krinke stocks used and antique pens and presides over an in-house museum.

Some of the 500-plus pens on display were passed down by his grandfather, John Froehlich, who founded the shop in 1922. The collection includes European, Southeast Asian and dazzling American designs from the 1850s to the heyday of the fountain pen, the 1920s and ‘30s.

The Fountain Pen Shop, 315 W. 5th St., Suite 800, Los Angeles; (213) 626-9387.