I’ve been using the Parson’s Italix as my everyday writer for a while but it’s time for a change. What I look for in a pen for daily use is that it be a good writer and not worth a lot.
This pen turned up in a lot I bought recently, It’s a smart pen, feels good in the hand and writes very well, though without any flex. It’s worth very little. What is it?
Yes, it’s a Platignum. A gold-nibbed Platignum, though, and one with a solid feel to it. Not really typical of the brand, though some of their post-war output, like this one, was made with the eye on quality that had been previously applied to the by-then shelved Mentmore*. I think it will do very well. As ever, firm-nibbed pens are a challenge to me. I don’t automatically write well with them and I have to try a bit harder. It’s character-forming.
*That was one of the most convoluted sentences I’ve ever been guilty of. Of which I’ve ever been guilty. Now I’m ending the sentence with a trailing preposition. Sorry for hammering the grammar.
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Nice to see Platignum resurrected themselves in your eyes. Looks like a nice writer. I always struggled with grammar in school, so it’s nice to see you keep proper grammar alive and catch your own errors.
Hi Don,
Platignum made some good pens in the later years. This one, which has no name it seems, is something of a surprise, so good is its quality. They also made a school pen called the Varsity which is a really well-made pen, though a little odd-looking. But of course they made some horrible cheap disasters and it is on these that their reputation is founded. That’s what people remember: the cheap-looking pen that spat ink at every opportunity and rarely worked properly for more than a few days. Whether lever fillers or the cartridge type, Platignum made some memorable stinkers.
Grammar fell easily to me in school and it has become second nature now. Of course I can drop howlers with the best of them but that’s OK. It gives me a chance to play with language.
In my wonderings through Ebay this weekend I picked up a “Platignum gold nib gift set” of a similar pen and a ball point pen. Both seemingly unused at first sight, the fountain pen is definitely uninked.
The model of the fountain pen is a “GOLD NIB PRESSMATIC “M” and it looks very similar to your pen. The pen model engraving is immaculate but unlike yours it is a grey pen set.
It has a filling system similar to many Parkers of yesteryear where one presses a transparent sac encapsulated in a bent steel ‘stripe’.
Kind regards,
Rui
Sounds like the same pen, Rui. A good acquisition!