What Fountain Pen Have You Lost?

[stephanos]

Misery shared is misery halved. Or something like that.

 

FPN has lots of lists about what people are using, what people have just finished using, what people are planning on buying, and so on. But I couldn't find a place to share stories of misfortune. Let's see if there is an appetite for such a list.

[stephanos]

I'll start.

 

About a month ago, I was passing through London Heathrow airport's Terminal 5.

I had a three-pen case with me containing three pens: a TWSBI Go, a Chinese pen fitted with a Visconti gold nib (from a Voyager model), and a Montblanc 147.

 

I took the case out of my pocket to use a pen and then replaced it in my pocket. A minute or two later I left to board my flight. Just as I was boarding I realised that the case was no longer in my pocket. Cue me holding up the boarding queue as I futileley checked my bag. I have to assume that I hadn't put the case back into my pocket properly and it fell out.

 

As I still had a little time, I was allowed to retrace my route through the airport, back to where I had been sitting. But of course it was nowhere to be found. I did check with the airport's Lost Property office when I was next at the airport, but no joy. I did at least manage to get back to my flight on time.

[Marlow]

I was planning on starting a thread with this very name!!

 

I cannot locate a NOS Parker 75 flighter despite two serious searches. The fact that the one I use regularly has a failing cap clutch so the cap doesn't sit tightly acts as a constant reminder of the one I've apparently 'lost'!

 

Edit: I was so wrapped up in my own loss that I failed to sympathise with yours! My commiserations!

Edited July 31, 2019 by Marlow

[inkstainedruth]

I've lost a few pens.

Both of my Red Mesa Tortoise Noodler's Konrads. The first one I think at the Ligonier Highland games (I called but it was never turned in), and the second one somewhere in a hotel in Bowling Green, KY -- along with my first Pelikan M200 Café Crème (right after I had gotten the nib tuned so the pen didn't skip ), and the really nice leather zipper case they were in. Also not sure where my only US made Parker Vector has gone (the NOS stock one that made me think of a Mondrian painting when I saw it).

I've since lost the replacement Café Crème (I think somewhere in my house but can't find it).

I've temporarily lost several other pens: my first "good" pen -- a trusty Parker Vector -- got put down in a drawer and I found it months later (fortunately it had just been flushed out); my first gold-filled filigree Morrison ringtop (which has a bad habit of unscrewing itself from the cap while on the lanyard -- so that doesn't leave the house any more) but I found the cap and lanyard hanging on the storm door caught on a clip holding the glass in; and the Pelikan M405 Anthracite Stresemann (on vacation, but it got turned into lost and found) -- that one I was in a COMPLETE panic over because it's my most expensive pen, and I'd been afraid it would get run over in the grass by some overly stuffed SUV hauling a packed to the gills trailer....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[AlexLeGrande]

In the remote past i have lost a Pelikan 200, and a Sailor Magellan in Tortoiseshell. I replaced the Pelikan with two other Pelicans, a 400 and a 600, but the Sailor infrequently comes up for sale online at prices too rich for my ability to throw economic prudence to the wind.

[Mr5x5]

Thankfully I have mostly inexpensive pens so my loss isn't as great as the rest of you. I have lost several Preppies and Varsities. I've accepted the fact that as much as I like nice things my lifestyle isn't appropriate for them. I have been divesting myself of my more expensive pens and will be content to just keep my Aunt's ringtop, a Pelikan 120 my mother gave me, and my Ranga 3C eyedropper in the box where they sit, and use Preppies and inexpensive Jinhao 159s. Life is simpler that way.

[carlos.q]

A couple of years ago I misplaced a Parker 51 sometime during the move to my new (to me) house. I secretly hope it will appear someday...

 

More recently I lost a Pelikan M600. I am sure it will never return to me.

[bsenn]

All two of the Kaweco sports I've owned. If I ever pick up another I'm going to glue one of those orange bicycle flags on a stick to it...

 

Brian

[Joe in Seattle]

Lost a red Esterbrook S.J. with a 1551 student nib running home from school November 22, 1963

[Charles Rice]

Many years ago a Pelikan 200. Had to get another right away. I have three now.

[fullfederhalter]

Although not a fountain pen, I lost a Mont Blanc Bordeaux ballpoint--twice. The first time it was gone for over a year, tucked away in a carry-on bag that I hadn't completely checked after a vacation. The second time it was lost permanently and the worst part is that I have no idea when or where I lost it. I hoped that it would turn up again as it did before, but after years of checking everywhere I could think of (including all our travel bags) I have resigned myself to never seeing it again. I also found a great vintage oversized Sheaffer Balance fountain pen at a flea market a few years ago. The vendor kindly offered a plastic bag to put it in. Bad move. The bag was one of those extremely flimsy plastic shopping bags, and this one had a small hole in it that I did not see. I also bought a couple other items at the same time which also went into the bag. I walked for at least another hour through the market, but when I got to the car and reached in to examine my prize, it was gone. I spent at least another hour retracing my steps, searching in vain for the missing pen. Didn't find it, and it was not turned in to the lost and found. It taught me a valuable lesson though. I now carry a canvas shoulder bag for my flea market finds!

[Bibliophage]

I've lost a Penatia (which I really liked - since replaced due to the goodness of a FPNer. I need to put up a photo of it). I've also misplaced Parker Vectors all over the place - most found again, dried up - including an Indian made steel and gold one.

 

I've broken more than I've lost, but then, that's part of why I use inexpensive pens.

[LobsterRoll]

It was just a Preppy, but the way I lost it is still baffling to me. The last evidence I have of using it was in my journal. I apparently ran out of ink and switched to a different pen.

The journal and other pen were on my desk together, but I couldn't find the Preppy anywhere. It was the second fountain pen I bought, so it had a little nostalgia value.

[SchaumburgSwan]

Hi,

 

 

two pens.

First was a Pelikan M250 in it's leather pouch I forgot at university, I found it at the professors teaching desk hurrying back six hours later... BTW tanks to the unknown finder...

Last winter I somehow lost a vintage swan with broad flex nib, hopefully it will appear some day.

 

Jens

Edited August 1, 2019 by SchaumburgSwan

[Misfit]

Mine was an inexpensive loss also. I lost a Zebra fountain pen, but it was in a Lamy pouch. I got that pouch, or single pen holder when I ordered the Lamy Al-Star Coffee SE on amazon.co.uk. We only get the cardboard box in the US, so it was a cool item to me.

 

I bought another Zebra FP at Walgreens, but it has the hooded nib. I am not so fond of those. I miss the pouch.

[JulieParadise]

I "lost" two Kaweco Art Sport in the Berlin S-Bahn when my bag was stolen while I was unwell about 4 years ago. Still did not get to buy replacements for those, never found that model for acceptable prices again.

[tubular]

I've lost track of a number of pens I didn't especially care about--entry-level Pelikans and a Lamy, most of which probably fell victim to siblings. The only loss that really mattered to me was of one of the smaller MB Meisterstucks. (I never knew the number; I was young and unaware that the numbers meant anything.) I had left it at my desk during a summer job, and when I came back the next day it was gone. It had what was for me the perfect nib, very fine and full of character. I have other MBs, most of them bought in attempts to replace the lost one, and some are quite pleasing. But none has been as dear to me as that one.

[inkstainedruth]

Remembered another pen lost: my first grey Decimo. I had just gotten it fixed, too (I had swapped the nib assembly with a found-in-the wild Vanishing Point, and then had to have the shoulders ground down a little so the door would close properly). It disappeared somewhere between the Ohio Pen Show, the place I had dinner near the site hotel, and my hotel. I checked Sunday morning, but it wasn't ever turned in.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Rancho Gordo]

I was leaving Paris once and had to get rid of my francs so I bought a cheap, thin burgandy Waterman (this was the early 1980s). It took cartridges and it ended up being the wettest, happiest pen I've ever had. I would love to have it again! I don't have a clue when I lost it.

[praxim]

Remembered another pen lost:

 

This lead me to an obvious retort to the thread title, "I don't remember."

 

I lost a Sheaffer ballpoint from a gifted set with pencil once. It bothered me a little at time.

 

It doesn't now.