It is a niche, but as we proposed before let us try to collect cool brands for fountain pens.
I’ll add alle the brands from this two articles https://www.peytonstreetpens.com/pen-makers-europe/ and https://www.jetpens.com/blog/The-Best-Luxury-European-Fountain-Pens/pt/925 as soon as I can. In the meantime, feel free to add your personal pick in the comments. I’ll add them.
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Republic of Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Honorable Mentions
- https://www.carandache.com/ Swiss
- Burnham London, collectables which ceased selling in mid 1960s
- Lessons learned
- rotring is American now
- people are organized and even trade collectible pens
Caran D’Ache for Switzerland (i hope they don’t produce their stuff elsewhere). They are mentioned on the first linked site.
FYI, карандаш means pencil in russian.
There is a legend that the word карандаш (pencil) was originally the name of the founder of a pencil company. Swiss entrepreneur Arnold Schweitzer (1885-1947) actually founded the company Caran d’Ache in 1915, naming it after the famous French cartoonist of the Belle Epoque, Emmanuel Poiret[2]. However, the Caran d’Ache pseudonym chosen by Poiret was itself a transcription of the word карандаш (pencil), which already existed in Russian at that time.
Kaweko, Germany
Oh, thank you so much! ♡
I wish I had a list like this a few years ago. Anyway, here are a few I would like to add to the list.
- https://www.diplomat-pen.com/en/ (Germany)
- https://www.jacquesherbin.com/en/ (France)
- https://www.kaweco-pen.com/ (Germany)
- https://www.visconti.it/en/ (Italy)
Then there’s also
But it seems to be a bit complicated. It started as a German company, but then it went American at some point, and I don’t know what’s going on with them nowadays.
Faber-Castell is a “joint-stock company” (not sure, it’s Aktiengesellschaft in German), but it’s not publicly traded and the info I could find in a quick websearch on who owns those shares says that they’re all owned by family members (not sure how reliable the sources are, this isn’t really my field of expertise). You might be confusing it with a different company.
And TIL they also make fountain pens.
Faber is according to wikipedia still German. I sorted it under Germany until further infos appear.
Does the US even have well-known fountain pen brands? I’m from Germany and Lamy and Pelican completely dominate the market.
Parker is well-known and commonly found in stationery stores in Europe
https://sheaffer.com/ seems to be American.
Whole researching I learned that some european brands were bought.
Also… originally American? There is parker, now the company is registered in England.
Esterbrook is probably the most prominent, but not comparable to the big boys. Pelikan dominates the entry level school market (I think Germany is one of the very few places where a fountain pen is prescribed at school?), but higher end is a totally different range. Lamy is more consistent with options at all price levels.
FYI: Lamy has recently been bought by Uniball if I’m not mistaken
My first ecosia search yielded a lot of other Europan brands. That’s what we are aiming for :-)
Right now I imagine, that Americans sign everything with sharpies…
