Adding To The Flock

[mana]

For some reason 400N hasn't really lit a fire in me... I do have one though, and I've seen them become available every now and then (ebay.de and elsewhere also). Here are a few pics of the "Three 400 Tortoise Amigos"...

[inkstainedruth]

19 hours ago, Lam1 said:

The Tortoise holds a very special place in in my collection:  as luck would have it, it was my very first vintage pelikan - one may say that I started from the top 🙃.

Interesting that you should say that.

My first bird was a 1990s era M400 Brown Tortoise, bought for a special occasion.  It was at the time the most expensive pen I'd ever bought, and my husband was freaking out a bit over the price (although I pointed out that a NEW M400 would be MORE expensive, and that they had stopped making the Tortoise binde...).  I had wanted a blue-black one, but that's what came up on the eBay radar at the time.  

And then, a few years later, I *WAS* able to get an M405 Blue Black (as well as the M405 Stresemann) and he learned what I meant by "expensive"....   Of course, Pelikan ALSO made a liar out of me by re-releasing the Tortoise color.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Lam1]

@mana, maybe you can't warm up to the 400N because of all those awesome 100Ns you have 😀

Great pic of the "three amigos". I still don't have the 400 tortoise.

 

@inkstainedruth, I'd say starting with any tortoise is starting from the top 🙃.

The other Pelikan regular colors are all very beautiful (IMO), but I still think nothing beats the Tortoises!

[carola]

The Three 400 Tortoise Amigos. Great Name! 😂 I have got the same Amigos around here and I love this set, too. The green 400s are still missing a 400N companion, I have never come across one that was up vor sale, but maybe some day in the future there will be one to join them, who knows. And I´ll agree with Lam1 - the most classic Pelikan design is (in my opinion) the green striped binde, but the vintage Tortoises are still closer to my heart.

[inkstainedruth]

1 hour ago, Lam1 said:

@mana, maybe you can't warm up to the 400N because of all those awesome 100Ns you have 😀

Great pic of the "three amigos". I still don't have the 400 tortoise.

 

@inkstainedruth, I'd say starting with any tortoise is starting from the top 🙃.

The other Pelikan regular colors are all very beautiful (IMO), but I still think nothing beats the Tortoises!

Well, when I first starting looking at Pelikans (at an early pen show I was at), I mostly saw the green and black ones.  Which for the longest time was what I thought they ALL were -- and I still think of them as being the sort of iconic color-way (either the solid green and black, or with the green striped binder.  But then I saw one of the blue striped ones and it was "Oooooh!"  Ironically it took several years to get one of those and only because due to circumstances that will never happen again, I actually had a shopping budget to play with.  That was when the M405 Stresemanns had come out, and I'd been lusting after one of those as well.  Found a good price on Rolf Thiel's eBay store (in that I didn't have to pay the US distributor mark-up or VAT) and then went going "Hmmm...  wonder what other goodies he has...."  And decided that I liked the look of the slightly pricier M405 in the Blue Black over the regular M400 Blue Black.  The two M405s are still my most expensive pens by far, but worth every penny.   Although I still really like the M400 Brown Tortoise too... (hmmm -- I should put that back into rotation at some point, once I get a couple more pens flushed out...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[stoen]

22 hours ago, mana said:

Three 400 Tortoise Amigos

Yes, what a great trio!

👍

I cannot boast of having such “color trio”. My one and only 400N is green, but it’s a perfect pen. Perhaps this also depends on how lucky you are with the nib:

 

AFAICT, the main 400N problem is that there are quite a few of 400Ns around with wrong (400) caps. I dare not say if this may be some kind of factory error or B-stock, but I’ve seen few mint, unused “wrong” ones, with factory nib size stickers. There were some recent topic discussions in this thread:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/367627-pelikan-400n-with-400-cap/

 

In fact, the only correct 400N I’ve ever seen “in person” is my green striped pen. That’s one of the reasons that I decided to get it at once.

🙂

[carola]

I took the time to inspect my 400N closely when that discussion about the wrong caps appeared. I hadn´t noticed that much of a difference before, but taking a close look, I found out that the differences were indeed there and my cap was a correct one.

 

Only once I have thought I was being lucky enough to actually complete the second set, the green one. I had found a not clearly defined green striped Pelikan pen and pencil set with poor pictures up for sale. In the pictures the pen clearly looked like a 400N with a matching pencil from the 1950s. The price was a bargain. But then, what I really got was a NOS M400 old style from the 1990s and a pencil from the 1950s. Until this day, I don´t know whether the seller was a fraud, or dumb enough to mix up two similar but very different pens, or if the pictures showed me something I wanted to see that wasn´t really there. In any case, what I got in the end was a very nice pencil to make a set with my vintage 400 pen and a very nice present for a friend who returned the favour by giving me a now very treasured Ibis he didn´t care for. So, everything turned out nicely and maybe I will find that green striped 400N one day.

[eerestis]

For the sake of pen porn, I'll add the following picture with most black-striped Pelikan 400 models. 500NN and 300 are missing. Maybe I should hunt for them to complete the set. I wish I had the opportunity and funds.

 

[stoen]

15 hours ago, carola said:

I took the time to inspect my 400N closely when that discussion about the wrong caps appeared.

I’m glad that the caps for your 400N additions to the flock are OK, @carola. Sad to hear the story about NOS M400. It’s the sellers responsibility, IMHO.

 

Yet another “detection clue” is the 400N clip, which, apart from bearing a slightly narrower ring bore for the captop (than the 400 clip) is also slender and is slightly longer than the one in 400NN.

🙂

 

I will refrain from further commenting the 400N in this thread in order to help keeping it on-topic.

I’m sure the 400N issues will some time soon get summarized in the “Dating Pelikan fountain pen” thread by @tacitus.

[Lam1]

Nice collection @eerestis.

 

I didn't know that there was a significant number of 400N with wrong caps. But, fortunately, mine are correct.

 

I'll follow Stoen's lead and stop deviating this thread from the topic.

[mana]

PSA: You can post these "not so recently acquired" mini-collections to the Family Photos Of Your Flock -thread. Thanks!

 

[stoen]

Hello,

I found this nice and simple, common vintage pen. It took my attention with three rather uncommon features:

 

- 1958 model with locking cap

- amber tortoise color barrel

- ST nib

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

A locking cap?  Interesting.  How does that work?  (I've never run across one of those....)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[stoen]

3 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

A locking cap?  Interesting.  How does that work?  (I've never run across one of those....)

The 400NN was in production for 9 years. This short-term feature was installed for just a few months in 1958. It consists of a built-in springy steel ring inside the cap tube, which prevents the pen from accidentally opening in the pocket. As only a small fraction of 400NN has this feature, it is rather unlikely to run across one of them.

 

I believe it is covered here in detail:

https://thepelikansperch.com/2014/10/12/pelikans-secure-locking-cap/

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for posting the link.  That sounds really kinda cool.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[chromantic]

My 140 (1954 revision) has this feature. At least that's what I was told here when I asked about the little "catch"  when unscrewing/screwing the cap.

[stoen]

10 hours ago, chromantic said:

My 140 (1954 revision) has this feature.

I agree, since my 1954 140 also has this feature, as well as few other early 140 pens I saw, but I don’t know any official production dates.

Here’s the ST designation on the “new” 400NN nib - barely visible under 7x magnification:

Springy, but not exceedingly flexible or soft. I’m very satisfied with how it writes - great pressure control of line width: EF to BBB.

[carola]

I have one of those locking caps on my green striped 400NN. I thought there was something wrong with the cap for quite some time (like screwing it on just a bit too far and then there comes that little "snap" and you think "Dang it, what did I just do?!") until I stumbled over exactly that same article stoen has posted. I read it and thought "No! That´s a rare feature? Are you kidding me?" 😂 As the pen came at a two digit price, I was quite happy.

 

[mana]

I also have one 400NN (Tortoise) with that feature... I actually really like it, just wonder why it was discontinued?

[Lam1]

On 1/30/2023 at 3:53 PM, stoen said:

Hello,

I found this nice and simple, common vintage pen. It took my attention with three rather uncommon features:

 

- 1958 model with locking cap

- amber tortoise color barrel

- ST nib

 

 

 

Nice pen! Congrats!

 

The St nib is also not so easy to get.

 

I think I may have one of these locking caps somewhere. I have to check.

It is a nice idea - those of us who had a pelikan cap come unscrewed on a nice shirt will know the value of it.