Rob Astyk Fountain Pens Through the Years

Rob Astyk's "Period Pens"

Herewith, is a century of fountain pens:

1876 – No question here. Carry a MacKinnon Stylographic for the U.S.
Centennial. It is the marvel of its age.

1880 – Again, there’s not much to question. Carry an A.T. Cross Stylographic.

1883 – The choice is, again, obvious. Carry a first model Waterman.

1888 – You really ought to have more than 1 pen in your pocket. How about a Wirt overfeed and an original Parker.

1890 – There really are so many choices, but a Mabie, Todd Swan seems appropriate. One of William Stewart’s patents with those funky wire-wick feeds.

1893 – America finally gets around to celebrating the Quadricentennial of Columbus’ first voyage with the great fair in Chicago. For the World’s Fair in The White City, how about a Waterman 422 with fine silver overlay.

1895 – The Dip-No-Mores must choose a 0X or a 2X no more. Carry a Waterman 15 in mottled hard rubber.

1896 – They are hard to find, but a Horton Safety is the harbinger of a new era.

1899 – The Moore’s Non-Leakable Safety ought to be in your pocket. Anyone will do, as long as it has a short cap.

1900 – With a new century about to begin a Sterling Middle-Joint pen ought to be distinctive enough.

1901 – Out with the old. In with the new. Try a pair of pens: a Crocker blow filler
and a Conklin Crescent.

1904 – The self-filler is truly the wave of the future. Whoever meets you in St. Louis at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, take a Waterman Pump-
Filler when you meet.

1905 – Back in Boston the Brandt family is creating a wonderful pen that is giving every maker a run for their money. Carry any model by the Boston Fountain Pen Company.

1907 – The greatest of the Safety Pens is your for the asking. Carry a Waterman 14S.

1909 – Now you can even see the ink in the pen. I’d recommend a Swan with “little windows” or a Parker with a translucent Bakelite barrel.

1910 - Waterman 415 with silver Art Nouveau overlay. Though 1910 is a bit late
for Art Nouveau it's still very evocative of period. A 415 on Cardinal or
Mottled Hard Rubber would be even better.

1915 - There's a war on in Europe. The Lusitania is torpedoed off the Irish coast.
How about a Moore safety or one of the trench pens from Parker or Swan?

1920 - Prohibition has begun and The Volstead Act enforcing it has made organized crime BIG business. Try a Waterman 48 safety, minus some of the innards as a flask that no one will suspect. That is if you can’t find the rare Waterman 20S flask.

1922 - No question. A Parker Duofold Big Red. Add some class by making it the Deluxe model with the wide cap band.

1925 - I doubt that Jay Gatsby would want anything other than a Jade Sheaffer Senior Lifetime during the day. After 6 P.M. he'd switch to the more formal Pearl and Black version.

1927 - Lucky Lindy flies from New York to Paris. The ultimate would be a Waterman 55 New York to Paris set in Red Ripple, but how about a Schnell Penselpen with the airplane clip since there are more of the latter than the former.

1929 - Staying optimistic after Black Tuesday wasn't easy, but a Waterman Patrician might "keep your sunny side up". Try an Onyx for understated elegance or Turquoise for real optimism.

1933 - Happy Days are here Again! The dark night of Herbert Hoover is over and FDR is in the White House. Celebrate with a Mandarin Yellow Streamlined Duofold Senior.

1934 - The Chrysler Building and The Empire State Building represent the epitome of Art Deco styling. You should too with an Oversize Wahl-Eversharp Doric in the color of your choice.

1938 - The Depression may be lingering but the Golden Gate Bridge is now open. Art Deco still reigns and you have a choice. How about a new Speedline Vacumatic Maxima in Emerald Pearl? Or the very Art Deco styling of a Waterman Deluxe Ink-Vue in Copper Ray? For a statement that prosperity is returning, particularly if you're an arms manufacturer who's been raking in the bucks selling to both sides in Spain, Ethiopia and China how about an Eversharp Coronet with jet inlay simply because there is no blood red.

1939 - The war that Europe has been avoiding for 6 years is now upon us. A first model Waterman 100 Year Pen in Burgundy might go well.

1940 - Bud Abbott, Lou Costello and The Andrews Sister are filling theatres with "Buck Privates" and Jimmy Ritz's choreography of "The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy" number. Get out an Eversharp Skyline with a striped cap in your choice of colors and its matching repeater pencil too.

1942 - The attack on Pearl Harbor and on-going bad news in the Pacific means it's hard to know what pen is appropriate. Certainly anything with a military clip. So how about a Sheaffer White Dot plunger filler, a striped model in the brown that goes well with Army khaki?

1944 - The Axis Powers are falling back everywhere though the war's not won things are beginning to look brighter and those stylish Parker 51's are actually becoming available. This is definitely a time for a set in Cedar Blue.

1945 - VE Day then VJ Day and those terrible bombs whose implications very few have foreseen. Get out a Skyline set in Modern Stripe, that's Moire to you.

1947 - Having fought fascism in Europe and Asia we are now trying to impose it at home through the House Un-American Activities Committee. For a country rushing pell-mell toward the horrors of what we now call "The McCarthy Era", let's use a couple of serviceable but second-rate pens that aren't really what they pretend to be: The Eversharp Fifth Avenue and the Waterman Taperite.

1950 - For sleek utilitarianism no one can beat an Aerometric Parker 51.

1955 - The Sheaffer Snorkel IS the 1950's just as much as fins on cars and it comes in all those horrible/wonderful 1950's colors that look so like pudding gone horribly wrong.

1959 - The fact that James Bond never had a PFM has to do with the awful truth that both he and Ian Fleming were British. Nevertheless he SHOULD have had one. Take a PFM with you for this period.

1961 - A new president. A young president. And a belief that we could overcome...anything. I'd want a Parker 61 in my pocket.

1963 - A dead president, but we still think that we can overcome our sorrows and our fears to create a Great Society that's just and fair to everyone. What better fountain pen than a Parker 45?

1968 - Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. Murder of Robert Kennedy. The police riot in Chicago and, worst of all, the election of Richard Nixon. There's not much positive to write here. Like the Model T, any pen as long as it's black.

1969 - The moon landing. Pick out a Parker T-1 a little early and carry it for a while.

1974 - The dark night of Nixon ends by his own criminal hand. Pull out a Parker 75 in sterling silver.

1976 - For the Bicentennial, carry a Parker 75 Bicentennial pen, just don't get too optimistic. We're going to be plunged to new depths from January, 1981 through January, 1993.