Who doesn’t know Waterman pens? The Waterman pen company is a leading manufacturer of fountain and other types of pens.

The company started in 1883 in New York City when Lewis Waterman, an insurance salesman, was inspired to improve the early fountain pen designs and patented the first practical fountain pen in 1884. Thus, the Waterman pen company is still one of the few first-generation fountain pen companies that survives to this day.

 

First Waterman pens were manufactured of hard rubber and were equipped with 14K gold nibs. Then more elaborate pens with fancy precious metal trim and overlays came to production. These Waterman pens are valued and looked for by pens collectors. Some of them are still in use today. They are praised for their flexibility and reliability. The most popular models from the hard rubber era are the #12 slip-cap eyedropper, the #52 screw-cap lever-filler, and the #42 retracting-nib safety pen.

Among other famous Waterman pens are: the Edson, the Hemisphere, the Charleston the Phileas, the Expert, the Harmonie, , the Ici et La, the Audace, the Serenite, etc. The Waterman Phileas series deserves a special attention.

It includes not only fountain pens, but also rollerballs, ballpoints and even pencils. Phileas has a good price-quality ratio and consequently is usually recommended for beginning pens collectors. The series was inspired by the adventures of the worldly character Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days by the French novelist Jules Verne. That is why the design reflects an Art Deco look of the thirties. While the low end of these writing instruments is quite affordable (around US$30), the high end pens can cost over a US$1000. They are supplied with a convertible system for filling with either bottled ink or an ink cartridge. Nib can be fine or medium. Color selection is: black, marble blue, marble green and marble red.

It’s a matter of good form, taste and propriety for each collector to have at leas one of these fantastic Waterman pens in his collection.