Some inexpensive old pens are featured today.  Two of these pens are quite uncommon, not because they sold in small quantity but probably because people disposed of them rather than carefully putting them away, as they would have done with Swans, Onotos and Conway Stewarts.  Though they don’t appear so often they are probably a better representation of what people used than the more expensive pens.

It’s not always the most expensive pens that are the prettiest.  This Platignum looks quite modern but probably dates back to the 1930s.  Though some of the later ones appear with gold nibs, originally Mentmore designed the Platignum to be the least expensive pen on the market with a good steel nib.  This is a good solid button filler.  Strangely enough, it has been fitted with a Burnham nib at some point.  I’ll hang on to it until I get a proper Platignum nib of the right date.

This Penplas is a very basic pen.  It’s a lever filler with a folded-tip nib.  There is very little more that one can say about it.  Penplas only existed for a few years in the late 40s.

The Duragold was made by Perry’s of Birmingham, a company with a long history of making dip pen nibs.  I don’t think they made many fountain pens but a later scion of the family went on to make the very successful Osmiroids.

These pens have little value but they should not be forgotten.  Hundreds of thousands of people wrote with simple, inexpensive pens like these.