Thank you, Dr. Manfred Lamy

[Kaweco]

1930, after 2 years of cooperation, Parker left Osmia in Heidelberg, Germany. Parker`s export manager C. Josef Lamy was set free and began to produce his own writing articles under the name "Orthos". The first fountainpens looked like a Parker Duofold flattop copy but a few months later Lamy presented his first patent, a pen/ pencil combo. After ww2 Lamy associated with the Artus Kaufmann Companie and the name of their products was "Artus", like Artus- Favorit or Artus- Ballit.

The Lamy 27 was introduced in 1952, it was a very successful model and the first one which was produced under the name "LAMY".

Dr. Manfred Lamy, the son of C.J Lamy, took over the firm in 1966 and made basically changes in the product lines. The production of the LAMY 2000 was a risk. The cool design in Makrolon, Steel and Platinium coated gold nib which was made by Gerd Müller was outstanding, but it was absolutely not sure that an expensive article with no golden ornaments would be a best seller in these times. But the 2000 is produced until today, only with marginal changes. Several writing articles followed and some look like amazing art objects of the Bauhaus era.

The commercial paper advertising didn`t change for decades: Wriring articles in original size and a hand written sentence. Nothing more than pure understatement.

After more than 40 years of successful work for his firm which he owns 100%, Dr. Manfred Lamy retires last week from his leadership. He is now 70 years old, got several awards for his outstanding products and joins as a member of the advisory board, which will influence the firm philosopy in the future. The new CEO is Bernhard M. Rösner, he had worked for Mercedes Benz and Margarete Steiff (toys).

Thank you, Dr. Manfred Lamy for 40 years of excellent ideas in the world of writing articles.

Kind Regards

Thomas

 

pic:

Orthos from 1930/ 1931

LAMY 2000, old, with the letter "L" at the filling knob

Lamy- Lady, unbreakable Rosenthal porcellaine gold plated, produced until 2003

[HyperCamper]

I suppose that resume warrants a great, big "Thank you!" indeed!

[johnr55]

Let me add my appreciation for the 2000, along with a couple of other Lamy pens I bought in the 70's and still look spacey.

[saintsimon]

One of the reasons, which make Lamy a sympathetic company in my eyes, is the lack of the 'premium' hybris other German makers often exhibit (Do I have to name some ? ). Others are a reasonable pricing and products which deliver on promises.

Edited November 10, 2006 by saintsimon

[James P]

I really like Lamys for their clean designs - not a lot of ornamentation to clutter up the pen visually, plus the fact that they just plain work well.

 

A few months ago, I inadvertently stabbed myself with my Safari. Two minutes later, I was signing my name (literally in blood, as it turned out) - but the nib never skipped a beat. It still writes beautifully.

 

James P.

[Maja]

  James P said:

I really like Lamys for their clean designs - not a lot of ornamentation to clutter up the pen visually, plus the fact that they just plain work well.

<clapping>

 

Hear, hear!!

 

All of my Lamys are great writers, and I love the thought that went into the designs.

[DonS]

Gotta say, I'm charmed by Lamy too. My ex "inherited" my original 2000 (1970) in our divorce many years ago. The cap had split. I saw another one in a local shop recently and bought it, this time with F point. Better for me; pretty wide anyway.

 

My only complaint. The cap doesn't stay firmly in place when you are writing. I've tried various remedies, none very pretty. Problem is with the shape of the barrel and the slipperiness of the resin.

[HDoug]

Let me join in to thank Manfred Lamy for the perfectly functional, slickly designed writing instruments. My current favorite, the Al-Star:

http://homepage.mac.com/hdougmatsuoka/images/pen/LamyAS.jpg

 

Uh oh! I think Gort has his eye on one!

http://homepage.mac.com/hdougmatsuoka/images/pen/gort.jpg

Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!

 

Doug

[Russ]

Dr. Lamy deserves great applause. Lamy products represent, IMHO, the best in German character: flawless performance and few words.

 

I've had my Lamy 2000 for a month and love it.

My daughter can't keep her hands of her new Safari (1.1 italic nib). She writes, doodles, and draws with it.

 

Thank you, Dr. Lamy.

[cmeisenzahl]

Wonderful post, Lamy is my favorite brand too! ;-)

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I like Lamy's customer service very much!

 

Dillon

[Hephaestus]

We all admire companies like Pelikan for using screw in nib/feed units, but on Lamy pens the nib slides right on the feed so you can replace it independently. Even given this design, I've never experienced hard starting or any feed problems with a Lamy.

 

The only non fountain pen I look forward to using is the Lamy Swift rollerball. It had a nice weight to the pen, the cartridges glide across the page, and when you click the pen to use it the clip retracts into the pen body leaving the pen a smooth cylinder. Beautiful.

 

Meanwhile, the Lamy tri-pen with pen, pencil and fine highlighter is a joy for marking and editing documents.

 

Have I mentioned the Lamy ink bottle? Outstanding design with a collector divot in the bottom of the well, and a spool of cleaning paper around the base so to absorb excess ink from the nib.

 

There are individual pens that I like more, but there is no other complete product line that I respect more than Lamy’s. I hope that never changes.

 

-Ryan

[MYU]

Thomas, thank you very much for that tribute to Dr. Lamy! I learned a lot from what you wrote--hard to find that info on the Internet.

 

I too greatly appreciate Dr. Lamy's achievements. I'm a big fan of the 27. It's my "alternative Parker 51". Although slightly smaller, it has a nicer 'art deco' style cap, a very useful ink window section, and an extremely reliable piston filler with attached screw cap (no blind cap needed). The nib is semi-hooded, so at least you have a little more visual appeal and they write quite beautifully. Also, the nib section unscrews very easily--interchanging is a snap (almost like Pelikan). I find the Lamy 27 starts just as quickly as a 51.

 

So technically I think the Lamy 27 wins over the Parker 51. But the Parker has that undeniable enormous legacy and a bit more rugged feel... that's why I like them both as much.

 

I'll have to post a comparative photo expose on these models (I have a 27 and a 51 of the same color scheme).

[brh]

  MYU said:

I'll have to post a comparative photo expose on these models (I have a 27 and a 51 of the same color scheme).

Yes, please do!

[MYU]

  brh said:

  MYU said:

I'll have to post a comparative photo expose on these models (I have a 27 and a 51 of the same color scheme).

Yes, please do!

Done!

 

Lamy 27 & Parker 51 comparison

Edited January 5, 2007 by MYU

[EventHorizon]

  Hephaestus said:

Have I mentioned the Lamy ink bottle? Outstanding design with a collector divot in the bottom of the well, and a spool of cleaning paper around the base so to absorb excess ink from the nib.

 

There are individual pens that I like more, but there is no other complete product line that I respect more than Lamy’s. I hope that never changes.

 

-Ryan

I have an 8 year old Lamy Safari that I use daily and have had zero issue. I also have the same ink well.

 

FYI - The Lamy ink works pretty good in my Pelikan M200

[kirchh]

I just purchased a used Lamy 2000, which is an amazing writer, and I am also very impressed with its construction and heft. I disassembled the front end to give it a good cleaning, and I was surprised to find that the nib (which is at least a BB, perhaps wider) is marked 18K.

 

Does this give a clue as to its age or intended market? Are there other ways to data a 2000?

 

Thanks!

--Daniel

[Namo]

Just want to thank you for this nice and interesting post.

[Kaweco]

  On 12/7/2009 at 2:48 PM, Namo said:

Just want to thank you for this nice and interesting post.

Hello Namo

Thanks for reading, alas this article is more than 3 years old. I made some more historical investigationes and have to correct some thoughts about the early days of Artus.

Artus appeared in 1936 or 1937 as a fountainpen factory but changed their profession to a fountainpen- mail order- trading compagnie in 1939. Until 1941 Artus/Kaufmann and Orthos/Lamy always had the same post adress and the same phone number and together they moved to a larger factory building in 1940. Orthos fountainpens are extremely rare to be found in the wild and on the markets although the trade mark Orthos existed for 19 years. I suppose that Orthos and Artus had ever been the same firm and Orthos disappeared when Artus came on display. The idea for a mail- order trading surely came from Lamy who had worked for Parker and introduced American production and trading methods to the old continent. But he joined a battle against the union of the German stationary and writing equipment sellers because it was outrageous in the old times not to buy a fountainpen in a special shop.

Artus/ Kaufmann disappeared in 1943 and Lamy changed his name in 1949 to: Artus, C. Josef Lamy. Artus was deleted in 1972.

Artus- Ballit, -Favorit, and -Record date from the 50th

Kind Regards

Thomas

[Namo]

Thanky again. It is one of the many nice thing here that we still can access so many threads - it is a hudge memory of pen world. And such articles are always interessting.