An Email Crossed My Desk: Questions about Collecting...

The following email arrived a day or so back.  I will post the note in red, with my intercalated answers in black.

Hello David

I live in Western Australia. Congratulations on your website.

Thanks.  The website truly is the result of simple hobby run amok. But... I enjoy it :)

I decided to email you to seek some advice from you, but first I should tell you about my own pen experience. I am fanatical about fountain pens and have used them for about 40 years, and over those years I have been attempting to find the perfect pen;  a pursuit I must say that has cost me a lot of money and to date and I have not found that elusive pen. As such, I have acquired many nice  ( and valuable) pens, including Parkers, Montblancs, Conway Stewarts, LE Watermans and Pelicans, only to find that on a particular pen I have the perfect nib, or conversely, I have the most beautiful pen but the nib is a nail. What I have found fascinating is that no nib is the same, and as I became more interested in nibs, the part that in my opinion is the most important because it does the writing, I have enjoyed experimenting with various nib styles. Thus I use now mostly stubs and obliques. (By the way I do a lot of hand writing, mostly note taking)

This is a common- indeed charming-  conflict of sorts within collectable pendom and within- to one degree or another- each pen collector; is the hunt for old pens driven essentially by the desire for  objets d'art or is it a drive to find nice old writers with perhaps pretty wrapping? 

I posted an article on the VACUMANIA website on just this subject a few years back. That webpage desperately is in need of format freshening but the content does, i believe, hold up.

http://www.vacumania.com/website/peneducationuser.htm

Most of us of course have mixed drive. We hoard a bit, but we like to write with the darn things too.  And, obviously, this is one of the appeals of collecting old pens. Unlike many collectables, for the most part we can use the items we hoard without grossly devaluing them in the process. Try that with a rare coin ;)

I haven’t set out to be a pen collector, but in reality if I think about it seriously, that is precisely what I am. 

 You, me and many others.

Therefore I have decided to become more active as a collector, but in doing so, every future pen that I acquire  must be a usable pen for me. So I have some very nice pens to sell, and I will be looking for nice pens to buy. I have also decided that I will look for good quality vintage Parkers, i.e. Duofolds and Vacumatics only, because all things considered from my personal experience, Parkers seem to come up trumps, and perhaps pelicans a close second. 

Clearly, given my collecting focus, I'm not going to disagree about the grand appeal of Parkers. Pelikans certainly are great pens too, and I am happy to be quite friendly with a major seller of those old birds.  Parker pens from 1920's- 1950's are of solid construction and today maintain a large collector base. The nibs tend (especially for pens from the USA) to be a bit mundane regarding point, though of course well made. Most pens have fine or medium firm points. Pelikan more often features flex and more exotic cuts. Indeed, to find a Parker with a "special" point is to have  a pen with added value.  Sheaffer very well parallels Parker during the involved period, making pens of extremely fine quality.  Parker's Duofold was met by Sheaffer's flat-top pens, Vacumatic by Balance, "51" by Snorkel.

Having gone around the long way of leading up to my question for you, could you tell me your opinion in terms of brassing on the hardware as to the value or collectability of a Parker. 

There really are two levels to this and subsequent related questions.  

On the one hand collecting is a personal choice. There is nothing  wrong, per se, with enjoying and appreciating the most cosmetically flawed pen, if one happens to like it (for any reason) or in particular if one likes it as a writer.

On the other hand, there are generally accepted aspects of cachet, rarity and condition that contribute to generally recognized valuations within the overall collector population.

One need not subscribe to those generalities, but they will matter when it comes time to buy or to sell within the community. And, of course, this note cannot quite be a primer on all the challenges to buying well. 

All that said, brassing impacts value. The more brassing, the more value is impacted. Pens still are collectable (even trashers have value for parts), but clearly a clean pen with original and unbrassed trim will be valued more highly- all else equal- than a brassed pen. Minor edge brassing usually is not so much an issue.

Grading is complicated. Many variables: trim, plastic, imprint, color, etc.

 I  personally like my pens to be pristine in every way, but the difficulty as I see it is obtaining an absolute pristine pen that is say 50 / 60 years old. 

Yes.  It is a good thing I listed some mint and near mint Vacumatics on the website just yesterday, September 16, 2009 in the "newly listed pens" section.  :)

Seriously, while I am happy to find essentially pristine pens, what sets our hobby apart from, say, numismatics is that hobbyist focus  on our old collectables does not obsess over "mint/pristine", but generally addresses pens that are  clean (or can be made clean) and are usable.  Mint pens carry added value, but generally nowhere near the percentages added to coins for clean mint vs clean used.

If all in all, the pen is nice,  the nib has plenty of iridium and suites me and the hardware has some minor brassing, it is a good pen.

I quite agree.  A pen can be good, or better than good, even wonderful, using of course general descriptors and not the formalisms of pen grading.   Minor brassing is common to most vintage pens, even those most of us agree are "quite nice".  Major brassing is another matter, but even then, we deal not with an absolute cutoff between "ok" and "not OK". Rather, value drifts gently downward as flaws accrue.

But as I like my pens pristine, would  professionally gilded or gold electro plated hardware, be acceptable for a vintage pen and would in your opinion such restoration devalue / ad value to the pen?

TOUGH issue. Generally, I consider original to be best. I'd rather have original trim with minor brassing than a plated pen. I'd rather have moderate brassing (at appropriate price) than plated pen heavily priced up as result.  Those with good eye for pen grading usually can recognize plating, and some platers plate far better than others.  Color might not be right. Poor prep work can show the step between brassed and unbrassed portions, now all plated. Pens with... complex... trim can be particularly problematic. Indeed, for a pen of great rarity, I believe even more strongly that original is best.

However... for a nice basic pen or a pen that is in great shape save for (it happens) disproportionate brassing (eg. a pen with spectacular color and sharp imprint but with weak trim)... I am amenable to plating work.  The best case in my view is that of Sheaffer. Having a smooth cap-band on most pens and with many Balances having smooth clip or one with simple letters, Sheaffer's plate nicely. And, with chrome trim on some colors, Sheaffers do turn up with disproportionate trim flaws, such as a  gem gray/black pen can have trashed pitted trim. I would have such a pen plated.

Generally, though, I stay away from plating.

If you are to have a pen plated, I highly recommend Daniel Kirchheimer; justdon't tell him I said that. He doesn't need more ego.

http://home.comcast.net/~kirchh/Pen_Restoration/

I look forward to hearing back from you.

With kind regards

My pleasure

-david