What! I hear you say, yet another modern pen! What is this vintage pens blog coming to?

I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself. I mean, look at it!

This is, I think, the first of the pens that Cross made for Paul Smith, the British designer. This one’s in Midnight Blue and the alternative is Cherry Red. Paul Smith’s designs are described as “classics with a twist” hence the twist in the clip I suppose. That’s in danger of being a cheap visual pun but despite that, taken in isolation, it’s impressive and original. I haven’t seen a clip like that before. I haven’t seen the Cherry Red pen in the flesh (as it were) but the silver trim certainly works with this dark blue.

So how does it perform? Pretty well, actually. The beautifully engraved section provides quite a decent grip. I’m not fond of metal sections but the depth of the engraving reduces the cold and slippery feel of the metal. It’s well-balanced and would be quite comfortable in the hand were it not for the weight. It’s a full 34 g which is a bit heavy for my taste. Unless you had bionic assistance, you would find this tiring after a page or so. It’s resin over brass, the usual method for giving a spurious sense of quality through excessive weight. That aside, it’s a pretty good pen to use in short bursts. The stainless steel nib is medium, firm and very smooth indeed.

I believe there was originally a converter though it’s not there now. There are some cartridges in the box. Unscrewing and refitting the barrel to replace a cartridge is a pleasure. It’s a fine piece of engineering as you would expect from Cross. The cap snaps onto the barrel with a pleasing click.

It comes in a large and well-made box that clearly was not intended to be throwaway packaging. It seems that originally there was another pen in there and I believe that both ballpoint and rollerball were available. I suppose it’s a slight detraction that the other pen is not there now but really I am only interested in the fountain pen.

So it’s a modern pen and one that I would be happy to have and use were it not for the foolish addition of unnecessary weight to an instrument that works best when it weighs least. But, boy is it pretty!

I usually don’t buy Burnhams because of the problem with surface cracking or worse affecting the casein. However, if you get a good Burnham you get a good pen. This blue marbled Burnham arrived as part of a lot I had bought. I struck lucky – it was a good one!

Though they had more expensive pens, by the mid-50s Burnham was beginning to develop its economy and school range, of which the B 48 is an example. It has a screw in nib which can be changed for any one of a range of nib styles. At 13.1 cm it is a full-sized pen which feels quite solid. Its major fault is the quality of the gold plating which is little more than a gold wash. Though it has survived on the lever and the cap ring, it has almost completely disappeared from the clip.

The best point about Burnhams of this period is the plastic from which they are made. The colour patterns are glorious, rivalled only by the best of Conway Stewart. This one is completely free of the deterioration which so often affects casein. Having survived so long in good condition this pen is unlikely to deteriorate unless it’s soaked.

The nib is a plated steel one with a folded tip. One of the cheaper ways of making a nib, it is generally assumed that such a nib is deficient in some way. While it has a shorter life than a tipped nib, it will last for a considerable time particularly at today’s rate of usage. It would take a great deal of writing to wear this nib out and in the meantime it will write as well as any tipped nib. There is also the advantage that other styles of Burnham nib may be fitted. In addition Osmiroid and Esterbrook nibs will fit this pen

This raises an interesting issue about nibs: traditionally there were gold nibs, plated nibs, steel nibs and, off to one side screw in nib and feed units like this one. Gold obviously was the most costly, followed by plated and steel. Nowadays even very expensive pens often have steel nibs plated or not and the price does not seem to be determined by the value of the materials any more.

In parenthesis, perhaps the best aid for the arthritic is Dragon NaturallySpeaking with which this was done. It only took me about four times as long to write this as it would have done on the keyboard, but doubtless Dragon and I will get faster in time.

When this pen was offered in eBay a few weeks ago it caught my eye.  I knew nothing about it but decided I must have it.  Its colours, quite unlike anything else around, appealed to me as did its 10-sided shape.  As it turned out, there was little interest in it and I got it easily.

The pen was made by the Pecco Brothers in Turin, who began pen-making in 1917.  They used the names Eridano, Eridania and the slightly better known brand-name Stilus.  Eridano, for what it’s worth, is the ancient Greek name for the River Po which flows through Turin.

One might be forgiven for thinking that the Pecco Brothers had a good look at the Wahl-Eversharp Doric before they sat down to design the Eridano Extra 33.  It’s ten-sided rather than 12-sided but at first glance it’s very Doric-like.  The arrow-shaped clip has come to grief at some point.  I straightened it a bit and may do some more but it doesn’t detract too much from the beauty of the pen in my opinion.

The nib it came with was beyond repair.  I had a hunt through my warranted nibs but nothing there fit.  However there was a rather splendid Swan No 1 flex stub that slotted right in and could have been made for the Eridano.

It’s a superb pen, though it suffers from being one of those brands whose name is not well or widely known.  I think I might hang on to it.  It’s time I had a new daily writer.

As is usually the case with Wyverns, there isn’t much information available for the 303.  It was introduced in 1948 along with several other hooded or semi-hooded new models.  In truth, the 303 can’t really be regarded as even semi-hooded.  It’s a perfectly traditional button-filler.  It just doesn’t look it.  The very small nib is fully visible.  Small though it is, there’s still room for the little Wyvern image.  The extremely long cap band (if you can even call it that) has no equal anywhere, though perhaps the Waterman Taperite Citation comes close.

It is sometimes said that the fountain pen failed in Britain because manufacturers were not innovative enough in the post-war period.  I think this pen and several other Wyverns and Mentmores gives this opinion the lie.  These pens were very different from what had gone before.  In any case, British buyers did not demand innovation in the way that the American buying public did.  Besides, the American fountain pen industry suffered almost as much as the British, in the face of the irresistible success of the ballpen.

The 303 is a pleasant pen to use.  The little nib isn’t flexible but it’s a smooth fine to medium.  Grab one if you get the chance but beware – this is one of those Wyverns that have a left-hand thread at the section.  There’s a nice example on a Buy It Now here.  I expect to be selling this one in due course and I’ll try to undercut that one.  By more than a hundred quid.

Here’s another mystery pen.  All suggestions and comments welcome.

It’s a well-travelled pen.  Though it was made in England, I discovered it on one of my periodic trawls of eBay Australia.  I bought it and here it is back in Britain.

The “St. George” name doesn’t give much away.  Patriotic, perhaps in the adoption of the name of the English patron saint.  It doesn’t help me in determining where it was made or by whom.  When, I think, would be the early thirties.  This is a consciously Duofold-like button-filler and as it’s a little tapered, it is doubtless based on the Duofold Streamline.  It goes so far in its emulation of the Duofold as to have a copy of the spearhead feed.  It’s not a Lucky Curve, though.  That’s where they drew the line.

The patterned celluloid is the same as one of the patterns used by Waterman for their Patrician.  Waterman called this pattern “Turquoise” and it’s dark blue with large areas of golden brown and little splashes of white.  It’s an outstandingly beautiful pattern but I’ve always wondered about the name they gave it.  Turquoise is an opaque, blue/green mineral with brown inclusions.  The main blue/green colour is about as far away from this dark blue as it could be, and it is this pale blue/green colour that people mean when they say turquoise.  If you don’t believe me, put the word into the search engine of your choice, then select “images”.  Your screen will be awash with pale blue/green pictures and there won’t be anything that looks like this pen or the Waterman Patrician.  Strange!

This pen now has a W.R. Bruton Bros plated steel nib.  Bruton Bros made dip pen nibs and folded-tip nibs for fountain pens like this one.  I’ve heard it said that they made low-cost fountain pens but I’ve never seen one.  Did Bruton Bros make this pen?  It seems highly unlikely though it can’t be totally discounted when there is no other evidence.  I would say that this is anything but a low-cost pen, though, and the plated nib looks quite out of place.  I think I will have to find a suitable 14ct nib for it.