Here's a very interesting vintage fountain pen that Christopher recently acquired and wanted to share with us (thanks, Christopher!)....
He writes:
"Every once in a while, I acquire a pen lot and put aside the pens which I definitely will be selling. And in this particular case, the one pen which had little interest for me, at first glance, was marked 'Columbus' on the barrel. Mind you, this pen was also filthy, and I think that was one reason why I really didn't notice the finish or some of its outstanding points. Plus, the only Columbus pen company I knew of was an Italian firm. And did I want an Italian seemingly non-descript pen? Well, after dealing with the pens in the rest of this lot, finally, I got around to the Italian number. But on closer inspection, it really didn't look like a pen made in Italy. So curiously, I set to and cleaned it up and serviced it. So, what was I, in fact, left with?"
(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)
"Well, as it turned out, this pen was actually of superb quality. Starting with the cap, it is quite substantial and sported a beautiful 14K Golden arrow chased clip, complete with finely crafted feathers and a slightly turned up pointed end. The chasing just mentioned, is both exacting work and of jeweler quality. This is a ring clip held securely in place with a jet black, slightly domed clip screw. Below this cap clasp is a double 14K Gold filled banding and the cap is inscribed on the one side running vertically "NIOS" Studio, with a small company logo between. The barrel has quite a lengthy ink view window which is red ambered but still holds a reasonably good transparency. Below this ink viewer, the barrel is marked with both the company branding, Columbus, and model number of 1515 and in turn, finished in the most exquisite green pearl with jet accents. Below this lovely, finished barrel area, is the housing for a piston filler. At its end is a tapered flat screw on blind cap, covering a very well-made filler mechanism knob. This knob screws both forward and back to effectively ink the pen quite impressively. I should mention that there is a "M" inscribed on the filler, which I believe refers to medium.
Moving on to the business end of this writing instrument, the barrel sports a healthy grip, which is easily handled for writing. And fully secured in this grip section, is a beautifully designed feed, over top of which is a Rakete/Columbus No.4, 14K Gold good sized nib. This nib, I would have to add, is a general writing medium flex model very well ground. And just in case there is a question about the inscription on this nib and the other branding on this pen, Rakete and Columbus were two parts of the same South German company, a German pen manufacturer located near Nuremberg. As for dimensions, this fine pen posts well balanced in the hand at a full 6 ¼ inches, but caps back to just under 5 inches. Admittedly, I do not have a great number of German pens in my collection, but this one sure fills the bill."
