It's happened to us all...
You have such a large collection of fountain pens that you've completely forgotten the name of the manufacturer of a few, or a friend sends you a vintage pen and you Must Know Everything about it. This can also happen if you buy an old pen online or at an auction and the seller hasn't got a clue about its history.
I'm going to teach you how to be the Sherlock Holmes of the fountain pen world (second Sherlock reference so far on my blog, what can I say, it is a good book!) and sleuth out the origins of any pen!
However, this only works if the pen isn't Frankensteined, because if you have a Sheaffer nib in a Parker body with a Monteverde ink converter, it is anyone's guess what it originally was. In all other situations, this guide should be all you ever need.
I'll assume that you know nothing about pen brands, which is perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed of. That way, I'll show you that even a complete newbie can do this!
Take my Conway Stewart 70, for example.
First of all, look at the barrel. Anything etched into it? Yes, we're in luck! This plainly reads 'Conway Stewart 70, Made In England.'
Well, that was easy. Now you just type it into Google and tada! You will be able to find the year of manufacture, etc.
'But mine doesn't have any etching!'
Don't panic! That doesn't matter. You have another valuable sourse of info - the nib.
Most pen manufacturers etch, at the very least, the brand name into the nib. For example, if you zoom into this picture that my good friend Kendra took of a fountain pen from the 1930s, you can see 'Sheaffers, Feather Touch' on the nib.
The barrel of the pen is inlaid with mother of pearl, so type into your search engine, 'Sheaffer feather touch mother of pearl inlay' and you should be presented with product listings and pictures of that pen.
'But the barrel and the nib are blank!'
Were you a little overzealous when polishing the pen?
I kid, I kid. Some pens, especially very old ones, don't have any etching, or it is so worn as to be unreadable.
Now we will really Sherlock it and make a series of inferences.
Let's say that my Conway Stewart pen didn't have any markings. What are its defining features? A lever-filler, as it has a lever. Pens with one of these tend to be old. it has a green and black marbled barrel, a gold nib, and a diamond shape on the end of the clip.
This is what you type into your search engine: 'vintage green black marbled fountain pen gold nib diamond clip'. Lots of words, but you just have to trust me on this.
What have I just found after five seconds of scrolling? Bad quality screenshot, but same barrel shape, colour, and the distinctive clip.
So it may be a Conway Stewart pen. But ours doesn't have a gold clip. Must be a different model, not a No.15. Search 'Vintage Conway Stewart gold nib silver clip.' Another ten seconds of scrolling reveals this:
An exact match. So we have a Conway Stewart No.75. Elementary, is it not?
My pen is actually a No.70, as you can tell from the etching, but comparing the two I can't really tell the difference. Research tells me that a No.75 is a tad shorter than the 70.
I hope this guide helps you identify your mystery pens. I intend to publish more guides like this one in the future, so subscribe to be notified of more articles!