Some Old Indian Fountain Pen Brands

[hari317]

Hari...thanks...Pagoda could be Parker-inspired, but don't know which model...I checked the pen once again, found no clear evidence of Chinese markings...too simple to be a Chinese pen I thought...

 

Shrujaya

 

In any case it is an interesting find. I said Pilot inspired after looking at the square nib hole, and the angular clip.

[shrujaya]

Ah yes...now I know...there is an Indian Pilot in this collection which has similar clip and square nib hole...thanks, Hari...the Indian Pilot will come up next...

 

Shrujaya

[georges zaslavsky]

very unusual and nice pens

Edited March 3, 2012 by georges zaslavsky

[Sagar_C]

Keep them coming, sir!

[shrujaya]

Thanks Georges and Sagar for visiting and comments…here is one more…

 

This is an Indian PILOT which I found in the lot…looks neat and is an NOS I think…I have a couple of other Indian Pilots in my collection and I wondered whether I should showcase this pen here or have a different post for all the Indian Pilots, but then I thought, since I got this pen in this lot and Indian Pilots are not being made anymore, this pen also qualifies to be classified under Old Indian FP Models (alongside Indian Watermans and Indian Swans)…maybe sometime in the future I will have all the Indian Pilots in one post…for the present though, we have this Indian Pilot…

 

It is a burgundy (correct?) coloured screw cap ED filler…plastic body with a gold coloured cap band and a similar smaller band at the barrel end…the name PILOT INDIA can be seen on the barrel…and a shiny open nib with Pilot Made in India –(2)– HARD GILT (what does Hard Gilt mean?) etched on the nib…I liked the nib, looks handsome…and it has got a square hole through which the groove on the feeder is visible…the feeder itself is flat with no fins…(wonder what it is called? finless feeder?)…the cap is almost rectangular at the top and kind of ‘tapers down’ to become a circle…the clip is flattish and seems stuck right into the cap-top (one can see this kind of clip in one of the SEVIKA models too)…after the previous post on PAGODA, Hari suggested that Pagoda could be inspired by Pilot models, especially when one looked at the square nib hole and the angular clip…it then struck me that…yess…the Pilot India that I had had a square nib hole and a square clip… and so, I thought of a comparison photo of nibs and caps of both pens…

 

Here are some photos…

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Pilot1-capped.jpg

Pilot India capped

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Pilot3a-barrel.jpg

Brand name on the barrel

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Pilot3a-nib.jpg

Nib close-up - says "Pilot Made in India –(2)– HARD GILT" (tried very hard, but couldn’t manage a sharper picture)

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Pilot4-ninsection.jpg

Nib & section

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Pilot5-feeder.jpg

Flat finless feeder

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Pilot6-capbarrelend.jpg

Cap and barrel end

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Pilot7-comppicnibscaps.jpg

Just for comparison…Indian Pilot and Pagoda

 

Thanks for looking…

 

Regards,

 

Shrujaya

[hari317]

Nice Pilot find, I don't have this model, sir can I pls have it?

 

Gilt is the covering of the nib with a thin layer of gold, gold plating/gilding. Hard might either refer to the quality of the plating or the nib itself or the tipping hardness, I am not sure.

 

That feeder is a standard unit found on Indian Pilots, I have documented my finds in this thread: link

 

Best

Hari

[Sagar_C]

May I ask, what is your source of such an amazing collection?

[shrujaya]

Here is an FP called TEKO…I found only one and it looks like one of those Parko pens showcased earlier in this thread…the pen has got a nice black and silver pattern on its barrel and cap…it looks like the material is celluloid, but is not…as we have seen earlier in the case of Parko pens, a thin plastic celluloid patterned sheet over a regular plastic body seems to have given this pen the ‘expensive exclusive’ celluloid look…the nib has ‘smoothglide’ pressed on it…and ‘TEKO FINE’ (meaning fine nib?) can be seen on the barrel…the arrow clip with a diamond shape at the top is reminiscent of the Vacumatic plain diamond clip…here are some photos…

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Teko1-capped.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Teko6-uncapped.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Teko2-clip.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Teko3-barrelname.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Teko4-nib.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Teko5-section-nib.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Teko7-opensection.jpg

 

Thanks for looking...

 

Regards,

 

Shrujaya

[hari317]

Amazing finds, good work Jai!

[Dhara lekhni]

Greetings,

I remember using PRESIDENT geometry box in 80's as a school boy in north east India. I am wondering if the same company produced PRESIDENT pens.

Best

DL

 

 

Thanks Skyline...here is the third pen from that lot...

 

The third in this series of Old Indian Fountain Pen Brands is a fountain pen brand called PRESIDENT…I am presenting two FPs here…one has a black plastic body and a gold coloured metal cap…and the other looks like it has a celluloid body, but from my experience with the Parko FPs, I am not too sure…but the silver and black pattern looks very good…

 

The pen with the black barrel has a kind of nib which is partially open…the front is open and the sides are covered… a semi-hooded nib or a semi open nib? The other pen has an open nib…both nibs have the brand name imprinted on them…the imprint can also be seen on the barrels of both pens…clearly visible on the black pen and the colour on the imprint seemed to have disappeared on the celluloid-like FP…and it says ‘unbreakable’ below the brand name on the celluloid-like FP…

 

I have come across the name PRESIDENT w. r. t. fountain pens earlier…but I not sure whether these pens and those are made by the same company…I will have to do a little bit of re/search in the pens shops to find out if PRESIDENT FPs are still being made and sold…

 

Here are some pictures of the PRESIDENTs…

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/1-presidentcapped.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/2-presidentuncapped.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/3-presidentnibswithname.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/4-capclips7barrel.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/5-president-capjewels7backends.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/6-presidentbarrelwithnamelongshot.jpg

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/7-president-barrelname.jpg

 

 

Thanks for looking…but keep looking...there's more...

 

 

shrujaya

[shrujaya]

Thanks Dhara for visiting and for your comments...though I am not so sure, it could be the same company...you know, like Camlin which even now produces a host of writing instruments, including geometry boxes...

 

shrujaya

[cjabbott]

Some fantastic finds here! I especially like the Duty and the Teko. Please keep them coming!

[T. E. Samad]

I really admire the fact that India has a long tradition of fountain pen usage.

[tdzb36]

Classic

[shrujaya]

Thanks Abbott, Samad, & tdzb36...for the comments...and for keeping this rolling post in circulation...

 

there are some more brands that I would be including here...last days of the current session in college...busy with finalising reports, exams, et al...will be back soon...

 

Thanks all...

 

Shrujaya

[Marlow]

Oh wow! Shrujaya, fantastic pens! I've spent quite a bit of time in India but that was before I developed a taste for fountain pens that went beyond my trusty old P45! I dont care whether the Parko and Teko pens are celluloid sheet over plastic! I love them! Fabulous examples of indian ingenuity! Without any question I will be on a mission to find some of these if I should come again to your amazing country. Thanks so much for sharing these finds!

[djkpens]

the teko clip just needs a blue dot !!!!!!!!! great deigns in their absolute simplicity -all ed !!!!!

next i suppose you will be exploring india ink !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

parker arrow --exactly -----------thin celluloid it looks like celluloid --hard to fake that

i have a small collection of american knock offs --good work !!!!!!!!!!!

[shrujaya]

Thanks a lot Marlow and djkpens...

 

Marlow...I am glad you love Parko and Teko...yeah, Indian ingenuity to the fore...in case you come to India and to my city, Hyderabad, I would be happy to take you around to the FP haunts here...please do come...

 

djkpens...yes, the blue dot on the Teko clip will make it perfect...ha ha ha...please do post pics of your American knock offs...would be very interesting...

 

Regards,

 

Shrujaya

[shrujaya]

Thanks folks, for all the responses...I am happy that this crackpot exercise of mine has found many takers...glad...

 

The next fountain pen in this series is an ED filler called PLAZA…it has a plastic barrel and a gold coloured cap…the name is emblazoned in gold along with an icon of a tree on the barrel…no marks on the cap or on the clip…as you can see, it has a screw cap…on the nib it says ‘Alloy Tipped Fine’…it is not a complete open nib, half of it is buried in the section…and as I had mentioned earlier, in each of these brands I found something interesting and unique…what I found most interesting in PLAZA was that the cap top and barrel end and even the section nib aperture all begin as squares and then flow down into circles…here are some pictures…

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Plaza1.jpg

PLAZA capped…name on the barrel

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Plaza2.jpg

PLAZA uncapped…

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Plaza3.jpg

The nib…

 

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn280/bambli_mass/Plaza4.jpg

Yeah…the squarish cap top, barrel end, and section aperture…

 

Thanks for looking…

 

Regards,

 

Shrujaya

[hari317]

Jai, the Plaza seems to have been inspired from the Sheaffer Imperial, the squared ends and the clip and the nib mimicking the short conical triumph nib...