Most Beautiful Pen Is...

[goodguy]

To continue my praise of this wonderful pen I will now write something I doubt anyone will believe, but it's true. I left two 51's uncapped all night. One was bone dry as expected. ONE STARTED RIGHT UP!

May I remind us all these are pens not super heroes

Glad your P51 is so good but frankly when my daughter wakes up in the morning and gives me a hug and a kiss then all I know is that this is what life is truly about and not pens, watches, cars or anything else

[Brian C]

O.k. sorry for talking about fountain pens on...Fountain Pen Network.

[bassopotamus]

O.k. sorry for talking about fountain pens on...Fountain Pen Network.

Don't let it happen again....

[welch]

Danitrio, Nakaya, Platinum, Pilot listen up! The most beautiful pen was created in 1939 by some uptight American working for the Parker company. That's right, like many that have come before me I have discovered the wonder known as the Parker "51". I love this pen!

 

Exactly right. No decorations, no useless spots of precious metal, sweeping, streamlined, easy to grip (a big failure of Lamy 2000: those finger-sticking cap-grabbers, the slick metal gripping area above the nib).

 

Every time I show people my daily-work pen (midnight blue aero, lustraloy cap), they say, "wow, what a modern design!!!"

[ethernautrix]

O.k. sorry for talking about fountain pens on...Fountain Pen Network.

Don't let it happen again....

 

Ha. I love this place.

 

 

*Chuckling*

[J English Smith]

Beauty is, always, in the eye of the beholder.

 

To me, the P51 and the L2K are both beautiful, timeless designs. The MB 146/149 are there for me too, though they got too bling-y for my current taste. I love many of the Japanese pens, too.

 

For those of us who love simplicity and "form follows function," the P51 is definitely a beautiful object.

[trent]

Most beautiful to me might be the Parker Vacumatics with pearlescent bodies. They are hypnotic to gaze at. But for consistent performance and reliability, the P51 is hard to beat. And yes, its simplicity is beautiful too.

[ticoun]

to my eyes, the most beautiful fountain pen is the Pilot M90. the design is simple and modern.

[Silvermink]

Geha 725 Goldschwing, (Gold Wing) '68-72. Then DM 395 or 100 silver dollars (1 oz silver per dollar)...What's silver now? $24 an oz?

 

It is the most beautiful pen I own, perfect balance, semi-flex B nib. Rolled gold trimming.

 

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/Goldschwingnib-2.jpg

 

That's an amazing-looking nib. Are they really rare or could I find one if I did a bit of hunting?

[Bo Bo Olson]

€100 -120 on Penboard.de.

 

I got mine for call it € 50(the pound was dead low), half price because everyone was watching soccer, had flown to South Africa, or had lost their money betting on England.

I found it on English Ebay.

 

I went to England Ebay to look at Ink Wells, and gave in Geha just before leaving....Six hours to go.

I had never expected to own that pen.

[duna]

P E L I K A N

 

Old, reliable timeless equilibrium.

Best incarnation of the masterpiece is probably the M140. Green striped. The only pen design I consider superior to this one is that of the Bic ballpoint, but it's ...a ballpoint. Its design is _really_ simple, perfect and austere. I wish I could find sometime the silver-bodied LE.

[Rose Nibs]

I like this topic. Parse Error, kindly name a pen please. Goodguy, tell us what pen you plan to give your darling daughter, or what pen you would like to see in her hand. And Bo Bo, I don't think the very high quality photos can be doing justice to your Geha goldschwing Those bits of gold on the sides of the nib - the gold wings, I guess, look superfluous to me. But I know there's a world of difference between the image and the object. 'Beautiful' means different things at different times. Sometimes I think a pen is beautiful because it works so well, but I don't often put the pen on the desk in front of me and contemplate it's aesthetic appeal. I think I could contemplate a Lamy 2000 for a minute or two, then a vintage Conway Stewart.

[Parse Error]

Montblanc starwalker black. with the star sharpied in. Or knocked off.

 

But seriously, I like the starwalker black, but the star really doesn't fit inside the design.

[rwilsonedn]

I guess I think of the 51 as a well-executed example of a particular aesthetic, much the same as a '57 Chevy. But how would you rank beauty between different aesthetics, without simply expressing personal preferences?

ron

[Glenn-SC]

Everyone's view of "beauty" is different.

 

IMHO the "51" is timeless, robust, functional, and beautiful.

 

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j95/glenn-sc/DoubleJewelComplete.jpg

[Bo Bo Olson]

Rose Nibs I have 20-25 semi-flex or F-1 nibs...with a few real good looking pens, attached to the nib.

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/B0ijpCWkKGrHqQOKioEWJJF95bBMvLLjW0w_3-1.jpg

Well, it's a slight cheat, the cap belongs to another black chased Boehler ' Gold', Gold being top of the line for them. I picked them both up at the same time.

I got six-7 black chased pens.

That's my best looking cap, and best looking window. I chase vintage piston pens.

Both need corks so don't really count....yet.

Nice nibs but not great. I have a couple of Osmia Supra nibs, 2 in steel and one in gold and they all three are =.

 

The piston filler Geha Gold Wing is fighting for second best pen/nib, right after my MB 234 1/2 Deluxe. A Pelikan 140 OB is what it's battling, nib to nib. I like OB...+ for Pelikan. The Geha is a perfectly balanced pen, + for Geha, it has a very fine first class writing nib, + for the Geha.

In Nib and Beauty the Geha's got it right now.

 

Looks alone...it may be just a tad better, may not be, vs a couple of Black Chased Osmia pens I have that are waiting corks.There the battle will also come down to the grand Osmia Supra nibs...and one is a Marbled black, gray and pearl pen.

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/faber_osmia_62_f_marbled_15.jpg

I think the Geha can hold it's own, but it will be tight.

 

Boehler Gold Tortoise

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/F7n6tDyIMsZj1282498401S.jpg

 

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/B05qqKwB2kKGrHqMOKiEERGChR8EBMcV7mpcw_12.jpg

A beautiful pen, with a semi-flex nib.. with a nice but second class nib. A nib that is still a pleasure to write with, but I have @ 8 first class semi-flex nibs...may even be 10...I'll know after the re-corking.

 

The Geha's nib is first class. It holds it own on the beauty front, and me not the greatest fan of black...in spite of having so many...black being cheaper by 3-4X color.)

 

I got to take some time and come up with a couple of better pictures showing the 'flat filled gold' jewels. That adds a nice classy understated bling.

 

In this case the nib is as good as it looks, and the whole pen is, very sleek and classy.

I did buy it for the nib. Well...it was nice that I'd 'spoken' to some one once before who had one....and it had the nib I'd hoped for semi-flex.

It's not a nib you can swap out or replace...a minus point. You can replace the section, though.

 

It's a tad late for semi-flex being a 68-72 pen...but I lucked out.

If it did not have the nib in semi-flex, it would sit in the Walnut humidor with my P-75 Cisele (stiff regular).

Edited October 29, 2010 by Bo Bo Olson

[rogerb]

'Beautiful' is not the same as 'pretty', or 'good-looking' ....it's that indefinable 'something extra' which a possibly less 'good looking' object (or, more definitely, a person) has, which makes you just want to keep 'experiencing' it with more than just your eyes.

Beautiful things(and people) are not always pretty.

 

A pen which wrote badly could not, for me, be 'beautiful' ....the mega-bucks MBs and Oscarsons are, again IMO, 'spectacular' rather than beautiful...I cannot comment on their functionality.

 

As a young lad I was struck by the beauty of an Emerald Pearl Vacumatic set, in the stationer's window...I really wanted it but it was beyond my means. The E.P. Vac pen I now have (born the same year as I) is a 'faded beauty', with that wonderful barrel clarity gone.

I am still waiting for Sarj (or someone) to find me one which hasn't lost that youthful beauty...

 

The P51 is, for me, a 'classic beauty' (like Chanel's 'little black dress') .... it looks really good, can 'function' perfectly, but is probably just one step behind a pristine Vac.

Edited October 30, 2010 by rogerb

[SimonJamesLucas]

OK, so here's my take on the Parker 51, it looks a little like a slug, has no one ever noticed this before? I love it really, I think the shape, although influenced by the jet age, is actually rather organic and I can understand anyone giving it Zen connotations because of its very natural form.

 

What does surprise me, in a time when super-sizing is rather in vogue is that Parker haven't just done the same pen but a little larger. Some days I'm in in a big flat topped lever filling kind of mood and some days this smooth organic beauty is just perfect.

 

Mind you, I think the 45 might be even more beautiful, especially at the engineering and maintenance level.

 

Simon

[Brian C]

I've thought about contacting Brian from Edison pens and seeing if he could do a slightly larger 51 shape in hard rubber which I would then take to Ernest and get some maki-e done.

[ethernautrix]

I don't believe in "a most beautiful pen." I believe in beautiful pens. I consider myself lucky to have at least several.

 

Okay, more than several.