GoPens


Consignment – Have Some Pens To Sell?

Our customers often ask, “Where do you get your pens.”  Well, the answer is “from lots of places, including folks like you.”  We buy lots and lots of pens, and also accept a limited number of special pens on consignment.  Contact us for an easy way to sell your pens – we’re always in the market.  One pen or an entire collection.  For consignments, we look for great higher-end vintage pens which compliment the pens presented in …

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Not So Vintage: Aurora Optima Demonstrator

Not so vintage at all, nor is it a fountain pen! Believe it or not, Catalog #73 has this attractive sketch pen; a Limited Edition #328 in clear acrylic. If you are going to use a pencil, it should really be a pencil! This is a new-old-stock pencil, mint in its original box with papers, leather pouch, and outer box. I love this pencil! A demonstrator pencil is more interesting than one may think, especially …

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Just What I Wanted – Conklin’s Self-Filler

This is how I feel when I find the right pen. Just what I wanted. I’m sure you all feel the same way, complete with the elated expression and feeling. Now, it’s not just that gentleman in your life that will be delighted if you present him with a fountain pen, ladies have good taste, too! Celebrity-endorsed by Mrs. Grover Cleveland. Besides avid fountain pen users and connoisseurs, who endorses fountain pen usage nowadays? I …

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Waterman’s Ideal Ash Tray

Waterman also produced ash trays. They were rather popular at a certain time, especially amongst people who smoked! Others seemed to prefer the Waterman fountain pens. The ash tray pictured below was an effective advertising unit for Waterman, so long as it wasn’t filled with cigarettes. Which would you pick? An ashtray or a fountain pen? I still suspect Waterman fountain pens and inks were more popular.

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Happy Holidays!

From our home to yours: happy holidays to all our vintage pen fans, new fountain pen users, and those who have yet to discover the wonderful world of fountain pens. We wish you all the best for the new year with peace, blessings, and of course, vintage pens and inks!  

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Parker Lucky Curve – Stop Those Leaks

This very interesting ad shows off the Parker Lucky Curve fountain pen, designed with a feed tube that was curved to touch the barrel wall. Where other fountain pens didn’t have this, when they were placed nib up in a pocket, there was a space with air, and the pooled ink at the bottom. If all the ink wasn’t drained from the feed before the body heated up the air space, the air would expand, …

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Waterman 1917 Roses on Vines

Check out Pen #4: Waterman didn’t only make pens with ebonite ripples and swirls. The Waterman 42 Continental Overlay is an 18K brushed gold-filled pen with a hand engraved “Roses on Vines” pattern on a barley background. It’s an eyedropper-filler perfectly complemented with a fine, extra-flexible nib. Better yet? This stunning beauty comes with its original box with just a touch of wear on the bottom of the barrel from cap posting. Having been around since 1917, it’s …

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Don’t Forget Your Fountain Pen!

We’ve all done it. We use a fountain pen at a desk, in the office, at a coffee shop, or even a friend’s house, and something calls our attention away. We leave… without our fountain pen!  Popular Science Monthly in 1918 showcased a device by Dermot Donelane designed to remind you if you were leaving your fountain pen behind. It was a two-part system, consisting of a special fountain pen and a special case.  The case had …

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Who Invented The Fountain Pen?

This is a question that many fountain pen lovers have asked themselves at some point. Who invented these wonderful writing instruments? Many think it’s L.E Waterman, and why not? Waterman is a well-known company. It was a Romanian inventor, Petrache Poenaru, who received a patent from the French government on May 25, 1827. His fountain pen had a barrel made from a large swan quill, invented to help him save time while taking notes. It …

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Umbrella Pen

This 1929 Ad from Modern Mechanics shows the latest invention of the time: an umbrella which stores a fountain pen in its handle!  We suspect it wasn’t very popular. An umbrella is fairly easy to forget, lose, or even break, so it may not have been the most practical design. Storing an eyedropper-filled fountain pen in an umbrella would likely lead to some ink burping and leaks. More popular, however, was the collapsible umbrella shown in …

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