Indian Pen Odyssey 2: Lookalikes

[amk]

One of the collecting ideas I've always entertained, but never quite put into practice, is collecting the entire Montblanc catalogue through lookalikes. For instance, there's a Baoer that looks just like the Montblanc Starwalker. There are hundreds of MB 149 copies, some fakes sporting the white splodge on top, others just copying most of the design.

You could do it with Parker, too – particularly the Parker 51, which has been copied, knocked-off, paid homage to, or whatever you'd like to call it, many times, and even deconstructed and reinterpreted by Brad Torelli and Ariel Kullock.

I kept finding pens that were very similar to other pens I knew. For instance the Ratnam 'brickwork' pen I found in Mumbai looks and feels like a Vacumatic, though it's not in a colour that Parker ever used. Inside, it has a Sheaffer Triumph style conical nib – and it's an eyedropper, not a vac of any description. Seaman's pens often seem to copy Parker, from the little arrow-clipped ebonite pen I found in Vidisha to a Parker Moderne style pen in Mumbai. So this certainly isn't something that's only been happening recently, or something that only the Chinese do; it's been going on as long as Indians have been using fountain pens. (As long as anyone has been using fountain pens.)

Among modern pens, Hero has what looks pretty straightforwardly a Parker 51 clone, though it doesn't copy the Arrow clip. I even managed to find a flighter; hooded nib, black plastic section, pointed metal 'jewels' on each end, but with a very simple clip that gives the game away. It's probably the single most common pen in India.

 

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/pen047.jpg

I didn't find many Pelikans, but I did find two pens that very obviously take their inspiration from Pelikan, one from Romus and one from Artex. The Artex only pays lip service to the Pel – it's an eyedropper; but the Romus actually has a piston fill, albeit not of the smoothness you'd expect from the real thing, and has a marbled 'binde' reminiscent of vintage Pelikans. The clip even has two 'eyes' though you'd never mistake it for a genuine Pelikan.

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/pen036.jpg

 

 

[harrietthespy]

Thank you for your Indian pen journal...very very cool!

[mohan]

Thanks for sharing. Even we Indians dont know whats happening on other part of our country!

[chadden42]

where could I buy the romus piston fill

[amk]

I believe Pen Co in Varanasi has the Romus, otherwise I don't know.

[pankaj]

I have seen plenty of Chinese replicas of MB in the market. The legendary bird* too is in place. Difficult to tell the body double from the original from a little distance, may be even as holding and handling if you have had no prior exp of the original, particularly the classic BP and roller. Appreciable Chinese skill.

 

Sailor 1911 are incredibly similar to MB, sans the white * And quality : both use "precious resin ". On the nib department, MB may run for cover. I am used to and happy with both, and comments are empirical.

 

The Artex that you have collected after enormous excavation are basically cheap pens, and there is a poor and failed attempt to copy of the great Pelicans to some extent in the clip. Still 15 rupees a piece is much cheaper than the Kulfi you had somewhere during the odyssey

[mohan]

I would like to have an Artex in my collection.And dear amk, the two eyes on Romus

Are actually elephant eyes and not pelikans! You can see the elephant trunks too!

[Mesu]

Great write-up.

 

I have the Romus piston fillers and they are good writers. They have "Scripter" stamped on them.

 

Even Deccan pens has a pen resembling Pelikan pens.

 

I didn't find many Pelikans, but I did find two pens that very obviously take their inspiration from Pelikan, one from Romus and one from Artex. The Artex only pays lip service to the Pel – it's an eyedropper; but the Romus actually has a piston fill, albeit not of the smoothness you'd expect from the real thing, and has a marbled 'binde' reminiscent of vintage Pelikans. The clip even has two 'eyes' though you'd never mistake it for a genuine Pelikan.

 

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/pen036.jpg

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2013 by Mesu