Modern pens - writing instruments or status symbols?

[Aether]

Definition of status symbol: something that a person owns and that shows wealth or a high social status - Merriam Webster

A status symbol does not have to have any particular intrinsic function as long as it satisfies the criterion above.  Note the often discussed difference between wealth and class.

 

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

On 1/21/2022 at 2:32 AM, svk said:

I have been using fountain pens and collecting them since 1970s.  I have enjoyed various nibs and the effects they created.

Over the years the changes clearly show that the pens are becoming larger, flamboyant in their colours, shapes, designs and very good at their ability to stand out from the pocket or on your desk. The prices also have been climbing inordinately.

When you compare their abilities to write and support good handwriting, and to give it character ( flex, italic) they don’t seem to be come out too well when compared to the earlier productions.

it seems to me that we have to accept the fact that in the modern world of typewritten stuff and speech to text facilities, fountain pens will represent luxury items, to be flaunted and such, not strictly for the pleasure of writing. Luckily, I have many of my old pens which keep doing their job.

 

Well, my healthy collection of Chinese work horses are anything but.  

 

I'm kind of not getting the have-to-accept part, though.

[Bo Bo Olson]

There are a hell of a lot of pretty pens out there, many more than half a decade ago.

With out a well known brand mark, how is one to know if the pretty pen is high status or not???

 

Of course a MB Writer's Edition is a status pen***, in they make so many and lots of folks over in the MB subscription has three or six; I guess mine is just middling status.

I bought it because it was pretty.....and my wife was buying it for my birthday. Of course I knew it was an MB, and limited to 'only' 16,000.......

Be Aware....there is small print..............our money.

Didn't buy a pen, ink or paper for 9 months.....and that pen was on sale!!!!

 

Being retired I really don't have anyplace to 'high status' jaunt....or ever had a reason.

"You paid that much for a messy ink pen"....of course some say that about a $20 ink pen; so one must pick one's area to flaunt it....as mentioned in one of the above posts.

 

 

I guess telling folks that you got it on sale, takes a bit of shine off the status aspect.

 

 

But I really love the for my eyes only bling of the nib.

With permission of Pentime.

 

 

I did see a MB Brandenburg for sale at my B&M for I think it was E-19,900 or could have been just 18,900. Now that is a high status pen....but the question is where do you take it?????

[ParramattaPaul]

7 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

I disagree. One's status of being able to afford a $1,000 pen, or even ‘waste’ $1,000 on a pen for which one has little practical use, is not about it being the best tool for anything, and not even necessarily a statement of taste. Actually spending $1,000 on acquire a pen (or that pen) conveys that one is able to afford it, even though whether one has to make serious sacrifices or compromises in other areas of one's life to do so is not disclosed; but there is no doubt that many can afford to buy that $1,000 pen without undue burden or second thought, or shed a tear should the pen become lost or ruined through misuse. Conveying that message to anyone who cares to look and note its significance is what makes that pen a status symbol.

 

I agree.

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Cost.....

Cadillac started dying when it was cheaper than a Benz or BMW. Same with Lincoln.

 

Back when Parker and Sheaffer were once American status pens, was back in the day of the Almighty Dollar of 4 to 1.

A combination of leaving the US and costing less removed their once high status.

MB along with Soennecken were always expensive pens. Pelikan in the '60's cost a dollar or so more than the King of Pens a Snorkel...

 

I fear Toyota has made a major mistake, by changing their luxury brand Lexus....to brand change for all Toyota's. All will be Lexus's.

In what person with money wants his status car to be lumped with the poor?

[ParramattaPaul]

23 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Cadillac started dying when it was cheaper than a Benz or BMW. Same with Lincoln.

The American car buyers I know suggest that Cadillac started dying at the same time as everything else made by General Motors (including the nominally popular Holden) when GM's quality went out the window.  Holden and Oldsmobile were both GM brands that are gone now.

[Jan Mathijs Rijck]

In my opinion, a fountain pen is very much a status symbol, but in a different way than one might see at first glance.

If I understand the concept of a status symbol as a sign of wealth, the use of a fountain pen indicates the greatest wealth a person can possess:  Time.

A person who writes with a fountain pen takes time to write. 
Your counterpart may simply think you are too dumb or too old to use modern media. But he may notice that you have better time management than he does, because you can allow yourself to invest time that he cannot allow himself.

I have a handwritten job reference from my very first employer in my files. Every new employer who saw this on my application said: "Impressive, you must have done a great job if your boss wrote you a handwritten, two-page reference!"

 

If I understand the concept of a status symbol as a sign of belonging to a certain group, a fountain pen in Germany does not connect me with financial wealth, but with education.

 

Here, where writing with a fountain pen is still taught in primary school (pupils even take a "driving licence" for the fountain pen, which is an important step for children to feel more mature), almost everyone immediately recognises a fountain pen. This is often associated with fond memories of their own childhood.

When I write with one of my fountain pens during my work, my patients never ask "what are you writing with?" or "why are you writing with a fountain pen?". They regularly say:" Oh, you (still) write with a fountain pen. How nice!"

 

In our perception, anyone who writes with a fountain pen has education and knowledge. The other real wealth.

Very few people in Germany know that fountain pens can be very expensive. Dr Merkel had an MB 149 with the matching penstand (the old one made of resin and rock crystal ... oh, how I'd love to have one of those!) on her desk in the Federal Chancellery.  That was quite normal, after all, she had a PhD in physics. And she was the Chancellor. And nobody cared that there was €1,200 on the table.

 

Expensive pens are like expensive bicycles here. Very few enthusiasts recognise the value.

[maclink]

On 1/23/2022 at 3:53 AM, JosephKing said:

f you want a pretty status symbol, you'll find it today and in the past.

If you want a low key workhorse, you'll find it today and in the past.

This is it, IMO.

 

The desire/demand for a status symbol or social recognition, whether overt or covert, is perennial.  I certainly don't think that it's any different than in the past.  However, like hair styles, clothing, buildings, cars or other man-made things; designs and styles evolve as taste changes, largely based, I think on the desire for things different as well as other social influences/group think.

[Uncial]

On 1/22/2022 at 6:05 PM, Checklist said:

I disagree.  This might be the case with new designs as all that seems to be introduced is "limited" or "special edition", but, looking at what is still being sold and produced instead of what is new, there are many "tool" pens that write well and are not designed to stand out.  Most Lamy pens (especially the Makrolon 2000), pretty much everything by TWSBI, and most Platinums and Pilots fit in this category, in my opinion.  (There are undoubtedly more, but that should be enough to make the point.)

I think that's a good point. I do wonder if the green, white, crackle, striped celluloid pens of the past werent also very obvious status symbols. I suspect most pens were still black and when pretty much all of them were black they were doing things like jamming a diamond in the cap or covering it with silver or gold overlay. Ive never done an inflation calculation on their prices, but it's easy enough to do on a base model Parker 51, and back then, what we consider the humble Parker was far, far from being a cheap pen. I suspect the colourful celluloids cost a pretty penny back in the day.

[Bo Bo Olson]

At $050-75 cents an hour minimum wage a $10-12.00 pen was for the middle class.

as I mentioned the P-51 and the later Snorkel was a graduation present, back when graduating HS  meant one was ready for the real world work place.

 

 

[Mercian]

Currently using a steel-nibbed Lamy Safari in ‘Umbra’.

 

Next ‘status symbol’ in queue for use is an ‘OG’ steel-nibbed Parker 25, although I may opt for my even-more Extravagant and Blingy all-stainless-steel Parker Vector!

 

My pen-pouch brings all the girls to the yard!

[Checklist]

1 hour ago, Mercian said:

My pen-pouch brings all the girls to the yard!

Oh, if only...

[bunnspecial]

On 1/24/2022 at 3:47 PM, Jan Mathijs Rijck said:

A person who writes with a fountain pen takes time to write. 
Your counterpart may simply think you are too dumb or too old to use modern media. But he may notice that you have better time management than he does, because you can allow yourself to invest time that he cannot allow himself.

I have a handwritten job reference from my very first employer in my files. Every new employer who saw this on my application said: "Impressive, you must have done a great job if your boss wrote you a handwritten, two-page reference!"

I think this is a great point and one I hadn't considered.

 

I'm of the generation that was taught cursive but also grew up with computers. When I was in middle school and on from there, every paper or anything I wrote never existed anywhere other than on a computer. I can reliably type 80-90wpm at about 95% accuracy, and can push to 100wpm if I let accuracy drop off, it's generally faster for me to type than write.

 

With that said, I'd be afraid to do a hand written recommendation letter. I'd not want to hurt someone I was writing it for by making it difficult to read, and also it's rare that I mail one or for that matter that it ever even exists on paper at least on my end.

[Karmachanic]

One might argue that pens, of one type or another, were staus symbols for centuries,  as the majority of the population could neither read nor write.

[N1003U]

5 minutes ago, Karmachanic said:

One might argue that pens, of one type or another, were staus symbols for centuries,  as the majority of the population could neither read nor write.

Indeed. Excellent point. The ability to write has been a skill that for millennia now has been an opportunity for upward mobility, and the tools of the trade were either not cheap, or they required additional skill to self-manufacture.

 

[Scrawler]

A $5 Jinhao 159 is perceived as a symbol of status in some settings. My black one got all sorts of reaction from Sharpie using lawyers when I signed a contract to sell my company. The status is in their perception not in the instrument itself.

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, Karmachanic said:

One might argue that pens, of one type or another, were staus symbols for centuries,  as the majority of the population could neither read nor write.

This is when I point out that illiteracy is still very much a social issue and an inadequacy for many.  Literacy in the UK is reportedly 90% with an age-related reading level of 13-14 years, and in the USA it is reportedly 89% with an age-related reading level of only 8 or 9.

 

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, Scrawler said:

The status is in their perception not in the instrument itself.

YES!

[sansenri]

6 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

One might argue that pens, of one type or another, were staus symbols for centuries,  as the majority of the population could neither read nor write.

quite true, then at one point more people had access to pens, and eventually many people let go of them again...

they are not really a status symbol,  but a "status" of mind now

 

[Addertooth]

The FIRST thing people tend to notice is the color of my lines when writing.  I don't use the typical blue or black, I use Irish Green ink.  Then, they notice the pen.  

I used to keep more fountain pens at my desk, and people knew I will always have a writing instrument on me, and additionally at my desk.   

 

A couple people (who were accustomed to the heavy pressure a ball point pen requires) mis-used some of the pens at my desk.  I stopped leaving really nice pens

at my desk.  Now the desk only sports a stiff hundred-year desk pen, Lamy Safari, and a Faber-Castell steel nib pen.   Those pens tolerate their heavy hand much better. 

 

The nicer and flexier nibbed pens remain at home.  Most of my writing at work is on poor-grade (porous) copier paper at work.  That paper does not tolerate wet pens.  

I do have a few Rhodia Journals at home, for when I want to use my wetter flex-nibs. But then, if they remain at home, they are not acting as a "status symbol".  

 

I did take a Montblanc 146 to a meeting once.   I discovered at the meeting another person who had a Montblanc pen as well.   Later that day, he brought by his

three pen collection.  He was just starting out.  He had started his career at a law firm, where a Montblanc pen was considered an integral part of the proper dress

uniform (along with a nice suit, Rolex watch, and such). 

 

At this point, I continue to use fountain pens for the very light pressure they require, which produces less hand fatigue.  I work in Engineering, so there is a constant need 

for annotations/corrections/application-notes.  Usually it is only a line, or a paragraph.