Of all the things you might not expect the young folk on social media to get excited about, this tops the list. “The explosion of interest in stationery over recent years – all those notebooks, paper and desk accessories – and the practice of journaling has become a kind of gateway,” says Patrick Yandell, brand manager for Omas, the Italian maker of what sometimes pompously gets called writing instrument. “So, yes, we now have penfluencers.”
But not just any pen. As much as the digital world has sparked a counter-revolution in analogue technologies – vinyl, film cameras and the like – the fountain pen is back in favour.
Yandell argues it answers a need for the tactile and, more surprisingly, the meditative. “I’d hesitate to use words like mindful or therapeutic, but that’s what it is,” he says.
A fountain pen is easier on the hand, requires almost no pressure and, crucially, slows the writing process to help clarify thought.
As novelist Graham Greene once noted: “My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. But my hand on a pen does. A fountain pen, of course. Ball-point pens are only good for filling out forms on a plane.”
Fellow writers Paul Auster, Tony Kushner and Colm Toibin have likewise sung the praises of the fountain pen for how it best gives vent to their thoughts. Because a nib gradually moulds to its owner’s hand – which is why you should never share one – the connection becomes more intimate still.
That, however, is not the only reason for the fountain pen surviving against the odds, argues Giuseppe Aquila, the third generation of his family to run pen manufacturer Montegrappa. “Did I have a choice not to? No,” he says with a laugh. “It was like an arranged marriage.” Half of the company’s sales are now fountain pens, despite or maybe because of them being so traditional.
The basic idea of a pen carrying its own ink supply goes back 390 years to German inventor Daniel Schwenter, who set a quill inside another quill and sealed the end with cork, but it wasn’t efficient for daily use. Lewis Waterman’s 1884 model is widely considered to be the first practical fountain pen. Waterman – an insurance salesman, who no doubt delighted in collecting signatures – had the insight of placing an air hole in the nib and supplying ink to that through a grooved feeding mechanism, which in turn was held by a barrel that contained the ink.
Technology has since solved the frustrations that once drove people away – leaks, blockages, scratchy nibs, messy filling mechanisms, even the need for constant refilling. Today’s pens have capacious wells cut directly into their barrels. Omas offers double and even triple-stacked nibs, allowing one pen to create both razor-fine and broad, paintbrush-like strokes – a popular feature in the Middle East, given the region’s penchant for calligraphy.
But more than their functional use, fountain pens have, Aquila says, become expressions of shape, finish, materials, decoration and craft. Omas, for example, is set to release an update of its famed – and sometimes counterfeited – 360 model with a triangular barrel.
Japanese maker Namiki is beloved for its lacquer and filigree work. Montegrappa may use its proprietary resin, Montegrappite, or its dwindling stock of vintage cellulose, but also ceramic, mammoth ivory, titanium and carbon fibre.
“Materials sometimes bring functional benefits – such as reduced weight, for those who like that – but they’re often a challenge to work with, so as a company we have to keep developing new skills, from engraving to gem-setting,” explains Aquila, who, in order to meet demand for an increasingly personalised product, has recently added three lines to Montegrappa’s online “configurator”, which allows the brand’s clients to design their own pen. “Making a fountain pen goes beyond its engineering,” he stresses.
In that, the fountain pen echoes the enduring appeal of the mechanical watch – another object that has been functionally outmoded, but still enjoys a booming market. “When digital watches came along, everyone said the mechanical watch was dead. But look what’s happened with that industry,” notes Aquila. “And I think the same is set to happen for fountain pens.”
The sheer collectibility of fountain pens is further magnified by the rise of limited-edition models. Montegrappa has licences with the likes of Lamborghini, as well as the Harry Potter and James Bond franchisees, while Omas will release a line inspired by the works of famous architects.
British pen-maker Conway Stewart has reported double-digit growth every year for the past decade now. The company has made special pens marking Victory in Europe Day, the coronation of King Charles and even replicated the Conway Stewart pen used to squirt ink into a villain’s eyes in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
When the likes of Rolls-Royce come calling to the company for an exclusive model, it’s not a rollerball they want, but a fountain pen. That, argues Conway Stewart’s managing director Alastair Adams, is because it remains a symbol of wealth or power, especially as it has grown more visible with time. “There are only a few things that a man can carry that show his status – especially if you wear a traditional dress – that’s his watch, his cufflinks and his pen,” he explains. “And status is increasingly expressed through difference – you don’t necessarily want the same Montblanc pen as everyone else.”
Not that there’s anything wrong with one of the fountain pens considered to be a classic, such as the fat-barrelled Montblanc Meisterstück 149 – carried by the likes of Ernest Hemingway, John F Kennedy and the cinematic James Bond.
There’s also Pelikan 100, Parker Duofold, as well as Parker 51 – which was favoured by Bauhaus designer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and was designed by Marlin Baker in 1941 with a barrel made from the same Lucite material used to make the canopy of the Second World War-era Mustang fighter. Today, however, the options are vast.
“I think that’s why if you’re a fountain pen enthusiast, you almost certainly don’t have just one,” notes Yandell. “Fountain pens are, for many, a hobby – people have different pens for different occasions, different-coloured pens to match different-coloured inks. Sure, fountain pens are tools, but nobody really needs one. People have them because, in different ways, they’re emotional products, which is easier to understand when you try using one.”
A pencil is good if you make a lot of mistakes. A ball pen is fine for paperwork. But if you want what’s written to be personal, or to reflect gravitas or a sense of occasion – as the public signing of many treaties testifies to – then it has to be a fountain pen.
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