Five Little Pelikans ...

[DrCodfish]

All in a row.

 

 

 

 

My 5 little 140's, great writers all. These are the easy 'gets', I will probably not own many if any of the others. If you have examples of other 140's, it would be great to see pics.

 

I really do need to make one of those light boxes, these pens are much nicer looking than they appear in these pics.

Edited October 16, 2014 by DrCodfish

[Mister K]

Is the black 140 the version with gold or chrome trim? I think it is chrome but I'm not sure. Anyways, very cool, I really want one of those red 140's; I've never seen a picture before where it looks so red.

[DrCodfish]

It's the standard gold trim version - bright direct sunlight isn't always the best for pen pics. I'm holding off on the reverse trim, hoping for a gray or by some miracle a tortoise or perhaps a mother of pearl.

[Mister K]

Hope springs eternal.

 

You know you're a collector when you are prepared to pay a premium for the least attractive variant of an object. I saw a gray in the flesh at a pen show a couple of years ago, and upon seeing it fully understood why Pelikan only produced it for the few months they did. I think the seller wanted six hundred for it. Six hundred! I could have bought a reverse trim, a red and a green stripe with an interesting nib for that kind of coin! The mother of pearl on the other hand, wow, and that's only from seeing the photos.

 

Oh well, if I make it to the Columbus pen show this year I'm looking for a light tortoise 400, so you are not alone in dreaming of the rarer ones.

 

I'll try and get a photo of my 140's tomorrow under daylight. I have a couple with reverse trim.

Edited October 17, 2014 by Mister K

[sargetalon]

A beautiful flock indeed!

[daenghafez]

Magnificent! Gorgeous candy eye pens! Congratulation on your acquisition.

[Green Ink]

Looking good! Your photographs are very nice too!

[DrCodfish]

Hope springs eternal.

 

You know you're a collector when you are prepared to pay a premium for the least attractive variant of an object. I saw a gray in the flesh at a pen show a couple of years ago, and upon seeing it fully understood why Pelikan only produced it for the few months they did. I think the seller wanted six hundred for it. Six hundred! I could have bought a reverse trim, a red and a green stripe with an interesting nib for that kind of coin! The mother of pearl on the other hand, wow, and that's only from seeing the photos.

 

Oh well, if I make it to the Columbus pen show this year I'm looking for a light tortoise 400, so you are not alone in dreaming of the rarer ones.

 

I'll try and get a photo of my 140's tomorrow under daylight. I have a couple with reverse trim.

 

You make me laugh, it is true that hope springs eternal, even for foolish quests. I have only seen pics of the Gray model, certainly not as handsome as the colors but we could at least say 'interesting', no? I'd love to have one, but I am probably not prepared to pay $600.00 for such an item.

 

 

Magnificent! Gorgeous candy eye pens! Congratulation on your acquisition.

I consider that high praise coming from you daeng. You've probably go nearly all the variants. .

[tinysnail]

Awesome to see them all lined up like that! I only have the green stripe, but a blue one is in the mail to be soon... I just love those vintage nibs and being able to exchange them with my modern Pelikan M2XX/M4XX nibs or Binder custom ones.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have only, the Green stripe, OB and a black and gold OF....both nibs are great.

That's about it for them, in I have some 400s too. (500-(fancy gold cap&piston capped 400)-400n- in tortoise & a green stripped 400nn.

 

My tortoise '90's 400 is only a very nice springy regular flex; what a good 200 can have....don't really matter if gold or steel.

 

 

As an American living in Germany, I'd first heard of semi-flex here, and that all but the D nib in the 140's were semi-flex. At a flea market I ran into my first 140; a green stripped one. As soon as I pressed the nib to my thumb , I knew what all the fuss was about with semi-flex. Did some horse swapping right away.

 

I now have 26 semi-flex pens in various widths from a lot of German pens and an English Parker Duofold Jr.

 

I always recommend the 140 & the Geha 790 as pens to get for one's first semi-flex.

One is sure of semi-flex and not of getting a 'flexi'/maxi-semi-flex that can happen with the '50's-65 400s. The original owner got nib&flex choice in the corner pen shop. So the early 400's are a gamble.

Edited October 22, 2014 by Bo Bo Olson