Filling Mechanism: Piston Filler

Montegrappa Extra 1930 is a confusing name for a pen, as it made many decades after 1930. Nevertheless, it was made with all of the elegance of that decade's luxury design. Montegrappa is easily our favorite Italian pen manufacturer. It uses the most beautiful of celluloids, solid precious metal trim and its nibs are soooo damned smooth. This preowned luxury pen sports a "green marble" design and sterling silver trim. It was gently used and looks like it is in mint condition on a passing glance. Yet, a very close inspection reveals some wear to the celluloid where it rattled around a desk drawer for a little while. However, you really need to look closely to see it. You will write a delightfully smooth medium line with its 18k gold nib. Oddly, we don't see the gold purity stamp on the nib, but these pens all came with 18k gold nibs to the best of our knowledge. Click the headline for close-ups. 13.8cm capped.

How is it Italian craftsmen and women seem to come up with some of the most beautiful pen designs in modern pens? We love the stunning amber celluloid that seems to an ancient essence found in artifacts from Rome and around the Mediterranean. On really close examination you will find little bits of wear and damage, but it is impossible to see at a passing glance. You fill the pen with a piston activated by the little silver disc on the tail. It writes a very smooth medium line for a steel nib. It also includes its box and papers. Click the headline for close-ups. 13.5cm capped.

We're all here in a steampunk submarine. A steampunk submarine. A steampunk submarine. Welcome to the most fanciful luxury pen we have ever seen: the Jean Pierre LePine Graphyscaf (The Ocean)! Designed to look like a steel-and-brass submarine from a time when Jules Verne wrote about them, this is an intense fountain pen that is NEW OLD STOCK. Never used, it remains a museum-worthy piece of functional art. Our favorite detail about the pen itself is the ink reservoir portal which features a whimsical underseas scene. Its display is a portal like window box of steel and brass, which you can fill with the included sand and seashells! The entire arrangement is packed in a wooden crate to keep it safe. Click the headline for close-ups. Our site won't be able to properly estimate the shipping. Please check in for shipping pricing before purchasing.

Who luxury can't be an exotic beauty? Our Stipula Iris checks so many boxes for us to love. It is a larger pen for easy gripping, but you know it is unique filling systems that float our boat. Unscrew the "cap" of the pen to reveal an empty space where the nib should be. Insert the cap into the tail and twist. The nib spins up like an old safety filler pen (or lipstick). Take off the cap from the tail and spin the little black spindle in the tail to fill pen with the internal piston. (No cartridges or converters) You will write a smooth fine-medium line with its two-tone 18k gold nib. It comes with its leather box and a booklet. You can spin the pocket clip to make your writing grip on the pen more comfortable. 15cm capped.

The United Nations celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Food & Agriculture Organization in 1995 and its ongoing efforts to stamp out global hunger. Omas hired sculptor Gio Pomodoro to help design this luxury pen, and his signature is on the back of the cap, which you can see in the photo. Originally, all the proceeds from these pens were shared with the FAO. A total of 6,000 pens were made. We do not have the original box and papers for this pen. Although it is crack and deep-scratch free, it shows significant dull wear from heavy use. We flushed a lot of black ink out of the pen, and added more silicon grease to the inside barrel walls, but the piston filler is still fairly stiff to operate. You will write a nice fine line with its 18k gold nib that has a little feedback. Omas Paragon sized at 14cm capped.

Words such as legendary get thrown around far too loosely, but Babe Ruth was, unequivocally legendary. A gifted pitcher at the start of his career and a remarkable hitter for his entire career, there are few who have surpassed any of his stats. The Krone Babe Ruth fountain pen pays tribute to the Sultan of Swat in fitting fashion. Its display box is wrapped in flannel that looks like the Babe's New York Yankees uniform. The pen sports his likeness in sterling silver ripping a homer out of the stadium known as the House that Ruth built. A sliver of one of his actual bats is preserved in the "jewel" at the top of the pocket clip. New Old Stock, this pen was never inked or used. Numbered 8 of only 288. We aren't sure how or why but the included ink bottle is half empty. The velvet slip that holds the pen seems to have aged, hardened and cracked at its bottom. Everything else is perfect. Click the headline for close-ups.

In the 1930s, Conklin and Sheaffer each developed a piston filling mechanism that required just a single stroke piston with a gasket on it to create vacuum pressure to fill a pen's entire barrel with ink. It was a revolutionary design. Conklin called its pen the Conklin Nozac. Some of the pens were imprinted with an ingenious gimmick of a word gauge to show how many words were left in the pen before a refill. This limited edition recreation of that pen is a beautiful, oversized masterpiece. Tiny silver flecks look like stars in the night sky of this translucent blue and amber fountain pen. Numbered only 110 of 898, the word gauge purports to hold 7 million words per refill. We have not tested that gauge's accuracy, but we did test fill it with water and it works well. The insides are a little stained from past blue ink. You will write a smooth medium line with its 18k gold nib. Minimal wear. Complete with boxes and papers. Click the headline for a close up. 14.8cm capped.

Paying tribute to the 7 continents of Earth, Aurora created a special edition of luxury pens. This is the Aurora Afrika. Quite possibly new old stock, the white piston on this pen shows no trace of ink. In fact, this warm orangy brown pen with black swirls is almost entirely perfect. Click the headline for close ups. We don't see much, if any, wear. The only flaw we see is that the gold filling of the limited edition number has fallen out of the back of the cap. Yet, it is still easy to read the imprint that this is pen number 4309. There's a beauiful onyx on top of the cap. Marked under the 18k gold nib is an "M" for medium point. We have not written with this pen, in case it is, in deed, new old stock. Comes with original boxes and papers. Its bottle of ink is still sealed. Pen measures 12.9cm capped.