Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 377

Here's a special treat - a lovely fountain pen belonging to Candice that was made by a manufacturer we haven't featured before on our website. The company was founded in Paris in 1847, and is well-known for its jewelry and timepieces....and its iconic red box.

Intrigued?

Read on!

(all photos courtesy of Candice ~ please click on images to enlarge)

Candice: "This is a Cartier Vendôme fountain pen that belonged to my parents, dating from the 80s. The nib is unmarked but is either 14 or 18k and the body is gold plated with a barley grain texture. It has a very unusual cartridge loading tray and takes equally unusual cartridges which are available at some Cartier boutiques still. The tray can be pulled out from the back end of the pen by hooking a nail into a tiny groove at the end and pulling the cover open. The cartridge goes into the tray and then the tray and cover are pushed back into the pen, opening the cartridge and loading the pen with ink."

"Definitely a pocket pen at just under 4 inches uncapped, with a cap that doesn't post on the back of the pen. The cap has a clip on it that stays retracted unless the top of the cap is pushed in. Since the pen shape is so unusual, the usability of this pen really depends on the personal taste of the writer and it would probably be too small and narrow to write with for most people, though the weight helps. It's quite a strange flattened shape to write with, the same shape as the cartridge, but has a substantial weight to it since it's mostly metal aside from the glued-in plastic section. I believe the pen design was meant to match a lighter that Cartier was selling at the time.

The nib is meant to be rotatable with a plastic wheel that was in the original box, but mine is lost to time. It wouldn't be hard to insert something into the hole at the back of the nib and turn it that way. As for the nib itself, mine had to be bent back into shape somewhat but now writes smoothly. It also reverse writes nicely."

"For pocket pen fans this is a unique piece that has a lot of hidden details in it-the spring loaded clip, the strange but oddly satisfying tray and the rotatable nib.
Worth looking into if you like small pens and want to make a bit of a statement as it's rather flashy!"

Wow. Our thanks to Candice for sharing this small beauty with us!