Detailed Description

Here we have a nice 1930's Well Fountain pen. The Well Fountain Pen company was one of the larger pen companies in the 1920's and 1930's. Not up there with Pilot - Namiki, or even Platinum or Sailor, but it was not that far behind. The earliest pens were Onoto style under-over feed pens, and today those are very very hard to find. In the early 1930's Well, made many balance style pens with nice flexy gold nibs, and in the late 1930's was bought by Diamond Jigyo Kabushiki Kaisha.

This pen is simple yet elegant. The cap and barrel is made of hard rubber and is all covered in black urushi lacquer even the clip. The black lacquer clips were made popular by Dunhill Namiki in the 1930's, but they are not often seen today. My theory was that the highly decorative maki-e pens were typically given as gifts, and rarely, if ever used. These plain urushi lacquer pens were bought to be used and that is why so few have survived to today.

The nib is what is known as a Japanese Shiro nib in the stenographer design. In 1937, The Japanese government prohibited the commercial use of gold and strongly advised that citizens hand over all their gold for the war effort. That is a little hard for me to imagine today. If the government told me to hand over all my gold overlay pens for the war efforts....I'd say something a little stronger than "I would prefer Not to." Nevertheless, things were a little different in 1930's Japan. I've heard so many stories of how families, litterally, gave everything they had for the war and lived on berries and pigeons they found in the park. I'm getting away from the point, which is that since gold was no longer available, pen companies were forced to find substitutes. The first shiro pens were simple steel that rusted within days, nearly right before the writers eyes. Pilot / Namiki lifted a few patents from the United States for non corrosive steel alloys that were intended for the tips of airplane wings. A nice light, non corrosive metal with supperior flex, everything you would want for a nib. After Pilot's success, the secret leaked out and soon everyone was making these nice white nibs.

The nib on this Well is a nice flexy writer Trust me, the nib has a some nice flex to it; great for a calligrapher or for someone like me who likes to dabdle around with copperplate style calligraphy. The really nice thing about these Japanese flexy pens is that they are much finer than American pens. Usually that isn't desireable, but with the springy flex, it gives you even greater line variation. I have several Waterman #5's and #7's with pink nibs. These Waterman pens have a nice springy flex nib, but they are never very fine, and it is harder for me to get the kind of line variation that I am looking for. These Japanese flex pens serve me better, and dozens of my regular customers agree.

The pen's filling system is one of the interesting Japanese eyedropper pens with a plunger and blind cap. For an indepth explanation of Japanese eyedropper pens please visit this page that I have provided:

http://www.kamakurapens.com/Japanese_Eyedropper_Pens.html

 

 

Nib:	Wartime Shiro nib
Filling System	Japanese eyedropper with ink cutoff plunger
Faults:	A few scratches and nicks. Nothing that stands out. This is a lovely pen.
Payment	I prefer Paypal, but will accept International Money Orders from a Post Office.
Shipping	Regular Airmail: $8 to anywhere in the world. Takes 7 to 14 Days. Unless the Customs people decide to inspect the item, and then it can take as long as three weeks. Express Mail $20 to anywhere in the world. This includes a barcode on the package and a tracking number. If the item is delayed, we can find where it is. Takes 3 to 5 days.
Note	If you have any questions at all, please send me an email at rd@kamakurapens.com Stay Well Dr. Ron Dutcher Kamakura Pens
	Also keep in mind that you only need to pay shipping once for an order. If you win one item and intend to bid on more, simply let us know and we will hold your pens and ship them all together to save you money. Also it is true that we often ship bonus items with our orders. No Parker Snakes or solid gold overlay pens, nothing like that, but always something interesting. So if you receive all your pens and find something extra, it wasn't a mistake. Keep in mind that a bonus is simply that. Do not bid, expecting one, and we certainly can not take orders on what someone thinks their bonus should be, but we do like to make sure our bidders are always happy and completely satisfied with their wins.
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