He writes:
"In the early days of my pen collecting, my wife Chris and I were in Portland to attend the big Portland Expo antique show. At the Pioneer Place mall in downtown Portland, we came across the Paradise Pen Company pen shop. A dandy spot if you are into and or collecting pens, run by a nice well-informed chap that had everything to say about the Pilot 'Capless' Vanishing Point. And to tell the truth, as soon as I laid eyes on the one he showed me, I was totally smitten. The mechanism was so incredibly neat - with one click of the button on the end, out popped a tiny fountain pen nib atop an equally small and intricate feed. Instantly, I became a child again, with an expression of great need for this amazing item and out of the goodness of her heart, dear Chris made sure that we didn't leave the store without one. So, there is my initial history with the Pilot Capless Vanishing point, but let us turn the clock forward to just the other day when another one of these treasures came my way..."
"So, what exactly do we have here? To start the ball rolling, this fine pen has a most attractive leaning toward dark blue barrel and cap complemented with 14K Gold plated fittings. This includes quite a long clicker button to perform both the presentation of the 14K Fine Gold nib and the retraction action of it accordingly. At the center, between the barrel and the cap is a tightly joined but unscrewable double banding. Moving on, the so-called business end of this pen is what looks for all the world like a cap, but this part serves a multi-purpose. First off, and most importantly, it houses the nib/feed unit with a hole for these pen parts to come out through. At the same time, it also provides a place to secure a very long but most fashionable clip. As for size, with the nib out for writing, it measures a full 5 ½ inches. Still, with the nib retracted and, strangely enough, the length is identical because the clicker mechanism button is further extended with the nib put to bed, but when the nib is bought out, this button becomes a tad shorter but with the nib out in daylight that brings the overall pens length to equal the other. Otherwise, there is a tiny branding just north of the double middle banding the reads Pilot Japan. It should be noted that the Pilot company brought this model out as early as 1963 and it has retained a place in the market and been, in turn, a great success ever since. Like my first Pilot Capless Vanishing Point, this pen will become a new well-deserved addition in my ever-growing pen collection."
Christopher, thank you for the review and photo! If you're interested in learning more about the history of this revolutionary fountain pen model, I highly recommend Carmen Rivera's excellent Pilot Namiki Capless/Vanishing Point History Page here: https://carmenriverapens.com/vanishing_point.htm
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