Fountain Pens Making Their Mark With Collectors

Among hundreds attending the Collectible Fountain Pen Supershow in 1993, one man made the supreme sacrifice:

He parted with a 1910 Waterman Snake Pen--for $35,000.

“He made so much money that he could afford to pay for a hip replacement operation,” said Bob Johnson, co-host of the annual conference.

Like paintings, rugs, stamps and baseball cards, fountain pens have become cherished collectibles, and not just because they sometimes fetch outrageous prices.

An antique pen can be enjoyed on many levels, collectors say.

“It has an aesthetic beauty and, unlike a work of art, it is portable and useful,” said Chris Sullivan, co-owner of Fahrney Pens, a shop in Washington, D.C.

Once they start collecting, devotees find pens addictive. Edward Fingerman, a 50-year-old lawyer from Roslyn Heights, N.Y., began collecting pens for their beauty, and now owns more than 1,000.

“It’s a thrill to write with an instrument that glides across the page,” he said. “Also, as an antique buff, I love the nostalgic aspect of pens.”

Of all his pens, Fingerman treasures most a turn-of-the-century Parker that he found in his parents’ home many years ago. The Victorian-era pen has a red-orange tinge that sets it apart from the standard black pens of that time.

Fingerman, who said he once paid more than $20,000 for a Waterman sterling-silver pen made in 1905, values his collection at “well into the six figures.” In general, he said, “pens have appreciated tenfold since the 1980s. It’s one of the few antiques that people can use.”

Collectors certainly appreciate their pens. This year’s Collectible Fountain Pen Supershow attracted 1,400 of them to Arlington, Va., many coming from Europe and South America to gawk at 26,000 writing instruments.

As with other collectibles, a pen’s rarity tends to determine its value. Terry Weiderlight, co-owner of Fountain Pen Hospital, a shop near New York’s Wall Street area, rang up a $36,000 sale in 1993 for a solid-gold Omas pen, one of only 30 such pens made by the Italian manufacturer.

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Pens are popular with people who see them as a way of flaunting their wealth, taste and position.

“People like to collect pens because fine writing instruments now have the same kind of cachet as a Rolex watch or a BMW automobile,” Weiderlight said.

Pen World magazine’s circulation has tripled to 105,000 since 1990, said Glen Bowen, its publisher. A recent survey of subscribers showed most are well-educated, wealthy, middle-aged men.

With this kind of market, pen companies find it profitable to offer luxury models. Omas is marketing a Jerusalem 3000 pen that depicts the old city’s four gates engraved in silver, with a reddish-golden tinge capturing the color of a setting desert sun.

Today, technology helps manufacturers handle any increase in business through a streamlined, uniform pen-making process. “Pens are more problem-free in terms of leakage and breakage,” Fingerman said.

Because fountain pens of old did leak, resulting in ink-stained fingers and pockets, there was a ready market when ballpoint pens emerged after World War II. Before long, the more practical, inexpensive ballpoints seemed to have consigned the fountain pen to the trash heap of history.

The free-spending 1980s, and battalions of yuppie collectors, helped revive the market for traditional pens--and companies such as Germany’s Montblanc Inc. cashed in.

Named for the 4,810-meter peak in the French Alps, Montblanc pens retail for $155 for the black Meisterstucke to $125,000 for the Solitaire Royale--a pen with 4,810 small diamonds that takes nine months to complete.

Thanks to imaginative marketing, Montblanc managed to have its pens turn up in movies and television commercials to give its sales a solid boost, according to Pen World’s Bowen.

While it’s doubtful that the modern, non-leaky fountain pen will dent the ballpoint’s dominant position, some still see a market for it.

“As the computer industry expands, the pen business will get bigger and bigger because people will desire a simpler writing instrument that shows an element of craftsmanship and style,” said Stanislas de Quercive, president and chief executive officer of Montblanc’s North American division, making a bold prediction: “This is only the start of the collecting boom.”