Denmark And Pens

[Sagar_C]

Does anyone know about any danish fountain pen that is collectible? Or any pen that has some danish link?

[aawhite]

Penol.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Penol.

 

I think that is the one I read about, he was licensed to make Parkers and made them with small differences to the regular Parkers....looked like a nice pen to me.

[Nichodemus]

Household names of fountain pens from back in the days are Penol, Admiral, Big Ben and more wealthy would use Pelikan and MontBlanc. Atleast according to family sources.

 

As far as i know Big Ben is danish made, even though the barrel says english patent. The penols is as said before based on parker designs. Admirals I'm unsure of, being new to the hobby, but i suspect they are german made. The last 2 are ofcourse not danish

 

Best regards

-Nichodemus

[Samthor]

I'd like to learn whether Oxford Everdurable pens are Danish. I'm told they're mostly found there.

Samthor

[Sagar_C]

I'd like to learn whether Oxford Everdurable pens are Danish. I'm told they're mostly found there.

Samthor

 

http://www.fountainp...rd-everdurable/ --- You must have seen it already.

 

Edited to add: OOOPPPSSSSS!!! That thread was started by you!

Edited January 24, 2011 by Sagar_C

[Brian]

An outstanding design. Hope to see it again from a new vendor.

[Sagar_C]

Does someone know any website or anything where I can find information regarding various models of Penol pens? I am in Copenhagen and it would be shame if I do not buy one vintage pen of Denmark.

[Nichodemus]

I have been unable to find any information about penol models, as the company unfurtunately seem uninterested in their heritage and now sells regular pens.

 

But in my search for a vintage conway stewart, i found an antique site that specialises in fountain pens, and even does repairs.

 

http://www.tema-penne.dk/20843331

 

It's in danish, but theres a mail address at the top of the page, and some eye candy. Worth a try as the owner seems very knowledgable.

 

Best regards

-Nichodemus

[Sagar_C]

I have been unable to find any information about penol models, as the company unfurtunately seem uninterested in their heritage and now sells regular pens.

 

But in my search for a vintage conway stewart, i found an antique site that specialises in fountain pens, and even does repairs.

 

http://www.tema-penne.dk/20843331

 

It's in danish, but theres a mail address at the top of the page, and some eye candy. Worth a try as the owner seems very knowledgable.

 

Best regards

-Nichodemus

 

Thanks. Have emailed them and would find the place. It is just 15 minutes away from where I stay. Hope to get something nice to remember.

[Manthos]

Have a look here.

 

This one is Danish, or so I have found out.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/183181-help-with-identifying-a-pen/

[Sagar_C]

Have a look here.

 

This one is Danish, or so I have found out.

 

http://www.fountainp...ntifying-a-pen/

 

If you are in Copenhagen, you may like to contact the fellows here: http://www.tema-penne.dk/20843327 . It seems, they also help in assessing values of pens.

[Sagar_C]

I am little confused. This post --- https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/102120-vintage-danish-benco-103-penol-sub-brand/ --- says that Big Ben and Benco were actually part of Penol. Is that so? Or am I missing something?

[DovR]

I have a small collection of Penols Big Bens Skribents and one "Skribenol" (skribbent Penol mix :-) mostly made by olsen the danish pen company. They subcontracted to Parker and even Mont Blanc. The Danish Parkers and MB's are not that well known.

 

There are only a few penol collectors in the world as pointed out below. Even in Denmark they are strangely hard to find. I have a danish journalist friend who scouts out the "loppemarkets' (pigeon danish for flea markets) and has only found one in 7 or 8 years. Regina Martini has occasionally on her site and they pop up on fleabay from time to time. .

 

 

The most prolific and knowledgeable collector/expert of penols and Danish pens in general is Dr Michael Miloro also known as MM. Nice fellow. Here's his penol blog and also penols f/s. http://fyldepenne.blogspot.com/ Michael is a world renowned maxillofacial surgeon at the univ of Chicago. Strangely enough another israeli dental surgeon of the same speciality at haifa's rambam hospital Dr Blumenthal, a lapsed member of our pen club, also has penols and does "constructive" surgery/sculpting on silver and metallic pen caps using the fine dental instruments. Neat pens!

 

Michael bought up the entire collection of Swiss penol collector and expert Det (Dethardt) Baumann aka swisspen who util some years ago was THE penol expert. Here's det's old penol list:

http://i51.tinypic.com/msdt1u.jpg

 

http://www.enter-net.de/auktion/artikel/penologie_e.htm

 

 

Dr Michael Miloro joined forces with Jao P martens to self publish via Lulu.com a 198 page tome "Penol Pens and Pencils"

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/penol-pens-and-pencils/6084044 Knowing Jaoa and Michael I am sure that this is a comprehensive tome, aka the Penol Bible! On sale for $49

 

more from MM correspondence to me: Yes, the cows and corn flourish in Nebraska. My Penol collection is truly something that I am very proud of, and the book is complete save a publisher. I am also working on a website, that perhaps I mentioned to you. The major aspect of Penol collecting that appeals to me most is the VARIETY and QUALITY of pens that they produced, and pencils. I have several solid gold sets which were produced during the German occupation when raw materials were not that plentiful. Some of these pens have names of dignitaries in Denmark, since the commoners could never afford to have them or have access to them.

 

121 penols from 1932-65 quite a comprehensive illustrated list by Jurek Kurzaj

http://jkpens.com/prod/index.php?section=manu&id=81&view=short&view2=pens

 

 

Some years back I gave my friend Rabbi Michael melchior, Danish born and former chief rabbi of Norway, for his 50th birthday a Penol ambassador. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Melchior Many Michael's in the penol field ;-) Melchior is of the famous Danish Melchior clan, his grandfather ex chief rabbi of norway who befriended king of denmark and imposed not to allow german deportation of danish jews during WW2. Subsequently 7000 Danish Jews almost en bloc ferried to safety from the Danish coast to Malmo in rickety fishing boats to neutral Sweden by Danish fisherman in October 1943 http://www.auschwitz.dk/denmark.htm

 

 

from local paper: Dov Randel of the Israel Pen Club presenting Rabbi Michael Melchior with a 50 year old Danish "Penol" fountain pen for the Rabbi's 50th birthday.

 

 

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i93/bdty/IPC%20pen%20people%20stuff/pic29358.jpg

 

Dov Randel, one of the founders of the Israel Pen Club had a PENtiful idea for a 50th birthday present. He and Meimad members presented the Danish birthday rabbi/minister with his 50th anniversary penol. Indian ambassador Raminder Sikh Jassal, now in Washington, happened to be in Knesset that day and as a pen collector himself joined the ceremony, Rabbi Melchior was then minister of Diaspora and social affairs in the Prime minister's office. Prior to that seved as deputy minister of education and culture. Jonathan and David two members of Rabbi Melchior's Meimad party joined in.

 

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i93/bdty/IPC%20pen%20people%20stuff/pic26962.jpg

 

Rabbi Melchior happily handling his new old Penol, a memory of his Copenhagen school days

 

Today penol is a manufacturer of cheap school pens and pencils. from their site:

 

http://www.penol.dk

 

History The Penol brand was established in 1928, it was in the period after the big depression in USA. The founder, Christian Olsen, therefore had problems with importing sufficient numbers of Parker pens, which, at the time, he was distributing throughout Scandinavia. The solution to the problem was to introduce his own brand, Penol. There are sevral background stories behind the brand name Penol, but two versions stand out. One is that Christian Olsen was nicknamed "pen Olsen" by his friends, and the brand Penol wasn't to far away from that. The other version states that the cable address was Parker Pen Olsen abbreviated to Parker Penol, thus Penol.

 

http://www.penol.dk/images/forside/pen777.jpg

 

 

During the second world war, and in the following years, Parker pens where manufactured under license at the factory placed at Emdrupvej in Copenhagen. During these years certain models of the Parker pens where enhanced, and it didn't take long before a full line of Penol pens where manufactured at the same factory. Among the well known Penol pens are products such as the Penol President, Penol Ambassador, Penol Senior, and the less expensive products Penol Q-pen and Penol School pen.

 

 

a penol poster from the 50's

 

http://www.penol.dk/produktvisning.asp?ugid=66&tid=31&setlanguage=2

 

from a Pentrace article on button fillers, see penols:

 

Many other companies used the button filler method. Here is one more example of button fillers from Penol (Denmark):

The Penol Company (which stands for Pen Olsen) was founded in Denmark by Christian Olsen. Christian received the distribution rights for Parker in Denmark, Sweden and Norway in 1905. In 1932 a factory was opened and licensed Parker together with Penol pens were produced. It was only natural that Penol used the button filling system in their pens. Production of fountain pens stopped in 1966, but the Olsen Company still represents Parker and distributes Parker products in Scandinavia.

Here is a picture of 3 Penol button fillers – L to R: coral red de Luxe BO aero (1935), green/black marbled Ambassador 5 (1947), black Ambassador Sr.

 

(1946)

http://i56.tinypic.com/280i4uc.jpg

 

 

The aero Penols have an interesting feature: an ink window like a piston filler, but …

with a button filler mechanism. This is achieved by a transparent part that is attached to the section on one side and to the sac on the other. This transparent elongation of the section allows the in level to be checked like in piston fillers.

Here is the Penol aero with its internal parts exposed:

 

http://i51.tinypic.com/xmsuag.jpg

Penol red aero exploded

 

 

from Rick Propas the PENguin's excellent site: http://www.thepenguinpen.com/other/fsother/OT1980.html

 

Here are some old pennol ads

 

 

It's a nice subbrand and worth collecting!

[Sagar_C]

:clap1: One of the best posts in FPN that I have seen yet. Thanks.

 

So, big ben is a subbrand of Penol itself. Right?

[Nichodemus]

They shouldn't be that hard to find. I was at a fleamarket in Copenhagen in december and i saw 12-15 penol pens, a few admirals and 2-3 MB's.

 

You could try this place http://www.denblaahal.dk/articles.php?lng=da&pg=10

 

Alternatively you could try http://www.dba.dk/soeg/?soeg=Penol&vis=galleri

 

The last link is like craigslist and you have to contact people by phone or personal messages.

 

In either case, good luck in your search

 

Best wishes

-Nichodemus

[Sagar_C]

Just to let you know, I found out form an authentic source (from MM) that Big Ben is NOT a sub-brand of Penol. Big Ben was a competitor of Penol, and was the Danish importer of Wahl-Eversharp pens, and therefore the Big Bens are very similar with similar materials to Wahl-Eversharp pens. In terms of value, Big ben and Penol may be comparable, but the price depends upon the specific model of the pen.

[DovR]

Hi Sagar I'm glad my post and ref to michael helped you out regarding Danish pens in general and the Big Ben Penol competition. You'll have a lot of time to seek out good Penols Big bens and I hope at good prices too. What will you be doing in DK the upcoming 1.5 years.

 

Have a good one Sagar!! København's nice friendly town

 

Ha det Bra!!!

[Sagar_C]

...... What will you be doing in DK the upcoming 1.5 years........

 

 

...Collecting pens...

[DovR]

BTW Regina Martini presently has (ongoing it seems) nice collection of 9 Penols and Big Bens on her auction site http://www.martiniauctions.com/auction/index.php? go to penol on sidebar.

 

http://www.martiniauctions.com/auction/uploaded/d447be1ce3e72465a231eb2265e0c139.jpg

 

Works out approx 33eu per pen ad if someone's serious i am sure agreement can be reached. that's a good deal for bdding collector who wants to start with the Danes.

 

I have dealt with regina for many years and she's a good honest well respected member of the pen community.

 

 

and "nibby" view f the Danes

 

 

http://www.martiniauctions.com/auction/uploaded/5999/penol2.JPG

 

Sagar, how's the penol big ben loppemarket search going?