Adding To The Flock

[N1003U]

2 hours ago, carola said:

During the last week, two Pelikans got added to my little flock:

 

Pelikan M805 Blue Dunes (B nib):

It had been sitting in a display case at my local stationery shop for two years and I finally took it home last week.

 

Pelikan 500 Tortoise with a matching pencil and a colourwise equally matching pen case (looking like snake skin), probably from the same era. The pen is marked F on the body, but the unmarked nib turned out to be a nice stubby B nib, which neither surprised me as I had already thought the nib shown in the pictures could never be an F nib, nor is it a setback to me as I genuinely love those B nibs whereas F nibs aren´t my piece of cake.

This golden set had taken its time to arrive here from Spain (about a month), but today it was finally sitting outside my door when I stepped out, waiting for me to carry it into its new home.

I haven´t inked it up yet (just dipped it a little to take a look at how the nib does), but the piston moves fairly easily. I am thinking about polishing the body a little bit and the pen´s clip seems to be slightly bent away from the cap. There are also two small dings in the cap but with the clip positioned above them they completely disappear.

The pencil is in working order (the body will get a slight polish, too) and the pen case is in fairly nice condition. I think I got myself something really pretty there.

 

Beautiful pens, @carola. BTW, it seems to me that perhaps your "little" flock is not quite as little as it once was...

 

Enjoy your new birds!

 

[N1003U]

18 minutes ago, OCArt said:

In my opinion the 500 tortoise is the nicest Pelikan with maybe the exception of the 100/101 Tortoise. I was fortunate to find the same 500 pen and pencil set, with OBB nib and it is my pride and joy.

 

 

I haven't gone (very far) down the vintage Pelikan path (yet), but posts like this are beginning to tempt me again...

[carola]

21 hours ago, N1003U said:

 

Beautiful pens, @carola. BTW, it seems to me that perhaps your "little" flock is not quite as little as it once was...

 

Enjoy your new birds!

 

 

Well... I am still able to hold the flock together with a single 20 slot display case, so this hasn´t completely gotten out of hand... I suppose. (Should I mention that there are 2 other cases of the same size for the non-Pelikan pens?)

But they are a pretty fertile bunch, aren´t they?

 

Fun fact: I usually don´t even like pens with plastic body and metal cap a lot. (That´s also why I own just a single Parker 51 and it´s a grey one to match the silver cap as closely as possible.) And I am not a big fan of gold and bling either. I still haven´t quite gotten to the core of what made me purchase this golden set, let alone what makes me somehow actually like it. It was like it had reached out to me, saying "Come on, give me a home with your flock, I belong there and you know it!"

 

Thank you, N1003U and OCArt.

[stoen]

Hello,

There’s some news in my little flock.

I haven’t hoped to come across such a pen for a budget I could afford, but suddenly, there it was, so I “snatched” it.

🙂

It was a chore fixing it back to its original beauty and writing splendor, but here it is:

a 101N from 1938, with a 585 St nib!
🙂

[N1003U]

2 hours ago, stoen said:

Hello,

There’s some news in my little flock.

I haven’t hoped to come across such a pen for a budget I could afford, but suddenly, there it was, so I “snatched” it.

🙂

It was a chore fixing it back to its beauty and writing splendor, but here it is:

a 101N from 1938, with a 585 St nib!
🙂

Very nice!

[Lam1]

3 hours ago, stoen said:

Hello,

There’s some news in my little flock.

I haven’t hoped to come across such a pen for a budget I could afford, but suddenly, there it was, so I “snatched” it.

🙂

It was a chore fixing it back to its original beauty and writing splendor, but here it is:

a 101N from 1938, with a 585 St nib!
🙂

 

Wow! That's a beauty! Congratulation!!!

[stoen]

Thanks for your kind comments @N1003U & @Lam1.

Here it is capped:

As @Lam1 wrote in one of the previous posts:

Quote

Sometimes a little luck comes into play

🙂

[inkstainedruth]

17 hours ago, stoen said:

Hello,

There’s some news in my little flock.

I haven’t hoped to come across such a pen for a budget I could afford, but suddenly, there it was, so I “snatched” it.

🙂

It was a chore fixing it back to its original beauty and writing splendor, but here it is:

a 101N from 1938, with a 585 St nib!
🙂

Wow!  What a beauty!

Congratulations!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Lam1]

17 hours ago, stoen said:

Thanks for your kind comments @N1003U & @Lam1.

Here it is capped:

As @Lam1 wrote in one of the previous posts:

🙂

😀 

I would need a lot of luck to land one of those... 

 

Those early birds sure are gorgeous!

 

[readytotalk]

On 12/7/2021 at 1:02 AM, OCArt said:

In my opinion the 500 tortoise is the nicest Pelikan with maybe the exception of the 100/101 Tortoise. I was fortunate to find the same 500 pen and pencil set, with OBB nib and it is my pride and joy.

Sure it is!)) Although 100 is more an icon than a pen to write with. 

 

[carola]

Have been trying to get some fairly decent pictures of my Pelikan 500 set - this is the best I could manage:

 

[ralfstc]

Love the 101N, the 500 set (nice etui!), and the view from Carola's window! Makes me miss my big old Toledo 910 even more . . . It went to Germany from Chartpak six months ago to have a broken barrel repaired, and there has been nothing but silence ever since. It's a 1990s pen with an (pf) OB nib, so it's left a big gap. I bought it earlier this year and found out almost immediately the barrel was broken and had been badly stuck together under the binde-- so it fell apart carrying a full load of Tanzanite. Not a high point in my fountain pen journey 🙂.

 

I'll post a pic when it makes its way back over the Atlantic, but meantime thanks for the lovely tortoises!

 

Ralf

[carola]

18 minutes ago, ralfstc said:

Love the 101N, the 500 set (nice etui!), and the view from Carola's window! Makes me miss my big old Toledo 910 even more . . . It went to Germany from Chartpak six months ago to have a broken barrel repaired, and there has been nothing but silence ever since. It's a 1990s pen with an (pf) OB nib, so it's left a big gap. I bought it earlier this year and found out almost immediately the barrel was broken and had been badly stuck together under the binde-- so it fell apart carrying a full load of Tanzanite. Not a high point in my fountain pen journey 🙂.

 

I'll post a pic when it makes its way back over the Atlantic, but meantime thanks for the lovely tortoises!

 

Ralf

 

Thank you.

What you are referring to is not the view from my window, by the way. Not having a photo studio at home, I had to actually walk out there behind the house into the cold and the snow in order to take those pictures of the 500 set. And when I turned around in search of some place to get the pen pictures taken, I saw this and couldn´t resist taking a picture of the setting as well. What you do for pens...

 

And I sincerely hope your Toledo makes its way home soon!

[OCArt]

Carola, What a beautiful case! I've not seen one like it before. A great compliment to your fine set.  I found this catalog page in my files and thought I'd share here.

 

3 hours ago, carola said:

Have been trying to get some fairly decent pictures of my Pelikan 500 set - this is the best I could manage:

 

[carola]

Thank you, OCArt. I have seen that kind of case in Pelikan catalogues from the 1950s, looking very similar to my own, said to be made from "real snake skin" but I am not at all sure whether mine is a Pelikan case or not and whether it is made from actual snake skin or not. The material has structured scales, it´s not just printed on, but I wouldn´t know if they could have imitated that structure in the 1950s.

The Pelikan cases have the Pelikan signature on the inside - mine hasn´t. I am not sure if my case has received some new leather on the inside somewhere down the way. The inside looks relatively new, but then the whole case is very nicely preserved.

 

If an actual snake had to die for my case back in the 1950s, I would like to apologize to the poor critter, although it obviously didn´t have to die because of me as this happened quite some time before my birth. 🤷‍♀️

[debraji]

On 12/4/2021 at 5:16 PM, Lam1 said:

  On 12/4/2021 at 1:42 PM, debraji said:

 

Oh, I've been looking for a 500NN. You have a lovely example there.

On 12/4/2021 at 5:16 PM, Lam1 said:

 

Thanks. 

They do pop up from time to time. 

I hope you get yours soon.

 

As luck would have it, I've got one on the way (as of this afternoon). 😎

 

[debraji]

On 12/7/2021 at 10:03 PM, stoen said:

Hello,

There’s some news in my little flock.

I haven’t hoped to come across such a pen for a budget I could afford, but suddenly, there it was, so I “snatched” it.

🙂

It was a chore fixing it back to its original beauty and writing splendor, but here it is:

a 101N from 1938, with a 585 St nib!
🙂

 

That's a stunner! 

[Lam1]

22 minutes ago, debraji said:

 

As luck would have it, I've got one on the way (as of this afternoon). 😎

 

 

Yay!! Congratulations!

 

Please, do show us a photo when it arrives.

[stoen]

On 12/10/2021 at 1:01 PM, readytotalk said:

Although 100 is more an icon than a pen to write with. 

Hello, 

Aren’t you not only a bit judgemental and unfair to a pen model, but also kind of missing the point?

🙂

Pens are made for writing, aside from being as iconic as can be. What are they worth if they fail the writing routine tasks?

 

In my experience, a 500/400 is as much of an icon as 100/101(N) if treated with care, and 100/101(N) is as great to write with as 500/400 if tuned properly.

🙂

BTW, every (vintage) Pelikan I have is a marvelous and expressive writer that no modern writing tool can compare to, else there wouldn’t be a point in having them. Yet, my favorite writers are this 101N, a red 100N, a yellow 100, a brown 400 and a green 400N.

[readytotalk]

1 hour ago, stoen said:

Hello, 

Aren’t you not only a bit judgemental and unfair to a pen model, but also kind of missing the point?

🙂

Pens are made for writing, aside from being as iconic as can be. What are they worth if they fail the writing routine tasks?

 

In my experience, a 500/400 is as much of an icon as 100/101(N) if treated with care, and 100/101(N) is as great to write with as 500/400 if tuned properly.

🙂

BTW, every (vintage) Pelikan I have is a marvelous and expressive writer that no modern writing tool can compare to, else there wouldn’t be a point in having them. Yet, my favorite writers are this 101N, a red 100N, a yellow 100, a brown 400 and a green 400N.

Sorry, I probably didn't make myself clear enough.
No doubt, all vintage Pelikan pens were created precisely for absolutely comfortable writing, and with proper service, they remain so, I can say as their owner.
However, given their increasing rarity and cost (especially in relation to 100, as the "first-born" and IMO more iconic model), I just try to protect them from everyday use and associated risks. Therefore, I admire them more often than other Pelikan pens, but use them less often . This point of view seems reasonable to me (especially since my favorite nibs are Italics).

Maybe I just need to get some more vintage Pelikans, to get rid of this prejudice)). 

P.S. Gorgeous 101N, just... so gorgeous!