Recently, I was thrilled to win an eBay auction for an attractive, marbled blue and grey vintage fountain pen. It was a lever filler with a 14k gold nib. The sac had been replaced and it looked to be in good condition. I had looked at the seller’s photographs again and again in the week before the auction. When it arrived, it looked even prettier in person than in the photographs, although much smaller than I had expected. I believe it to be a Burnham 54, although there is no imprint on the barrel and I know little about this brand. There were many variants of the model 54 and numerous other c ..read more

I think I may have mentioned that I am fond of vintage Parker pens. My admiration dates back to the late 1970’s when I collected Parker advertisements from newspapers and magazines. A Parker was also my first “grown-up” fountain pen when I went to my secondary school. It follows that this blog post might come across as slightly biased. The Parker 45 model was part of the current range when I was at school. Buying a new one in town was a rare treat. I remember using them in lessons to write in exercise books. If you left one uncapped for too long the nib was likely to dry out, although this is ..read more

On 9 January 2024, I wrote about my brief ownership of a Lorus automatic watch. The episode concluded with me taking it back to the shop, which was rather a down-beat ending. But in case I misled anyone into thinking that I was left sad and watch-less, here is What Happened Next. So this happened. I do not buy a new automatic watch very often: aside from the Lorus, I had not done so since 1999. After the Lorus episode, I next took a renewed interest in the Seiko ranges of automatics, the “5” series and the Prospex. To do so is to dive down another enjoyable rabbit hole. For instance, I read th ..read more

Well, what a great day that was! I felt like there was nowhere I would rather be, and nothing that I would rather spend my money on: the London Spring Pen Show at Novotel, Hammersmith, on Sunday 3rd March 2024. This time, my wife Ling accompanied me. She enjoyed meeting all my pen club friends and a big group of us had arranged to meet for a lunch break at nearby Latymers. Almost everyone to whom I introduced her, joked that I was a bad influence in my penabling, particularly with regard to vintage Parkers! I do tend to gush about Parkers but I make the case that buying these actually saves yo ..read more

I have had this pen since 27 December 1986, bought at WHSmiths, Uxbridge. I know this because I still have the box with the Access card sales voucher, with the guarantee and care guide, folded up beneath the pen tray. So, that’s 37 years. Parker 75 Laque fountain pen. I wish I could say that during that time, the pen has been a constant companion, always to hand, faithful and dependable, travelling with me everywhere. But that would not be true. Certainly, that was the aim, but for some reason things did not work out and I never gelled with the pen. A New Pen Day for me on 27/12/86. As I still ..read more

Inky pursuits is my series of occasional posts, gathering together some of my recent pen-related shenanigans which might not otherwise be blog-worthy stories on their own. Duke 551 Confucius update. This was my only new fountain pen acquisition in an otherwise dry January. I am enjoying it immensely although it takes a bit of getting used to. The size and weight are like nothing else in my pen cup. I love the look and feel of the natural bamboo wood of its barrel. I read in the Amazon description that this is Golden Silk Bamboo, whereas the Duke 552 is said to use Golden Stripe Bamboo which lo ..read more

As early thoughts go, today’s are even earlier than usual as this lovely pen has been with me for barely 24 hours. However, my first impressions are very favourable: the quality and finish and the sheer fun that you can have with it, exceeded my expectations. Duke 551 Confucius, bamboo fude nib pen. This model has been around for several years now and I am informed by artist Terry Christopherson (Instagram @theTravelSketcher) and of peninkandpaint.com that it is big in the urban sketching community. I was already familiar with another model that I reviewed previously called the Duke 552, also ..read more

This blog is generally about fountain pens as the name suggests, but I write to relate a recent tale in the world of watches. My excuse for this digression is that many people who enjoy fountain pens feel the same way about mechanical watches. Whilst I have more than my fair share of high quality fountain pens, I do also enjoy seeing how good a writing experience can be had for minimal outlay. I regularly use a Cross Bailey Light which cost about £20.00 and various inexpensive pens from China. To a lesser extent, this curiosity sometimes spills over to watches. Having owned several high-end wa ..read more

Last year, my daily journaling was done in a page a day, Moleskine 18 month volume. I bought it too late to make use of the pages for July to December 2022, but was happy to have them as a sort of bonus notebook. I persevered with the book although it was not particularly enjoyable to use. This was not, as you might think, due to paper quality which was actually quite pleasant and fountain pen friendly, but rather because I did not like the line spacing of only 6mm row height. Added to this, I found the width of the pages, at 130mm, a bit narrow. An A5 page is 148mm wide and losing 18mm makes ..read more

I usually start this exercise by looking at how many pens I acquired over the year and how much I spent on the hobby. 2023 saw me acquire 39 fountain pens, of which four were gifts for others, so 35 for me. The total spent was £1,676.19: not too terrible. A strong theme throughout the year was vintage Parkers, mostly bought on eBay plus a small number at the London Pen Shows. Always late to the party, this was really the first year in which I started looking for and buying vintage pens on eBay. Of the pens acquired in 2023, 15 were vintage Parkers and the remaining 24 a mix of other brands. I ..read more