On Sale: Pens, Pencils, and Ephemera

Celebrating its 150th birthday, Pelikan released a special black-and-silver pencil. It designated it the Pelikan K730. Twist the tail cap to advance and retract the .5mm lead. Unfortunately, there are several dimples in the silver tail cap. No name is engraved on the name plate. 12.5cm.

Celebrating its 150th birthday, Pelikan released a special black-and-silver pen. It designated it the Pelikan D730. Twist the tail cap to advance and retract the black Parker-style ballpoint. Unfortunately, there are two dimples in the silver tail cap, just under the unengraved name plate. 12.5cm.

Matte orange is both attractive and rare in the Aurora Ipsilon line. Plus, there's the tactile bonus of a lightly textured finish. This set includes both the fountain pen and ballpoint. The fountain pen comes with an Aurora/Parker-style converter. You can also feed it both companies' ink cartridges. There's light wear and a light mark where the cap posts. You can see its steel nib is marked F for fine, but we find it writes closer to extra-fine with a little feedback. Writing is a simple click away with the ballpoint. You'll get it with a super smooth blue gel refill made by Parker.

Russia's great empress Catherine the Great gets her due from the Montblanc Patron of the Arts with this sumptuous luxury pen. One of only 4,810 pens, you can see this one is still sealed in its original plastic. The pen comes complete with all of its boxes and papers. Guaranteed authentic. For those who look to use it, it comes with a solid gold medium nib. Perfect for use or a museum-worthy collection.

Factory sealed and never used, behold the Montblanc Peter the Great fountain pen from the Patron of the Arts limited edition series. The green and gold is stunning on this luxury pen. Should you wish to be the first to write with it, it comes with a solid-gold, medium-point nib. The pen comes complete with its original boxes and papers. We love the green finish on the wooden presentation box. A great design attribute of czarist Russia. Only the outer cardboard boxes show any trace of wear. Perfect for both daily use or a museum piece.

Demonstrator pens are so much fun, as we love watching all of the internal parts of the pen operate. You'll have a good time with this modern classic Pelikan Souverän M250 Demonstrator. We've tried cleaning out all of its old red ink, but inks are especially stubborn in demonstrator pen. Nevertheless, this pen is in great working order and comes complete with its original leather pouch and box! No cracks and only light wear on the pen. You will notice what they say about German nibs is true. It is marked fine, but it writes closer to medium with a little feedback. Click the headline for a close-up. The logo on the cap is black with a golden mama pelican and two chicks. 12.4cm capped.

Tortoise shell pens are among the most sought in the Pelikan line, and here we have an even rarer .5mm pencil. It is a clicker in good working order. Pull off the clicker to reveal spare leads and a hardened eraser. Our pencil shows some wear from use but no cracks or deep scratches. The clicker logo plating is a little thin, showing a mama pelican with a single chick. 13.6cm

We don't know the first thing about this brace of Cross mini pencils. They are very skinny and just about as wide as a tie clip pencil, but they don't have tie clips. The front writing instrument is made of solid sterling silver. It has some dents in the nose cone but it seems to work well. You twist the nose cone to advance or retract the lead that we think is .9mm. Its matching pencil is "1/30 10k Gold RGP." We think that mean Rolled Gold Plating. It works well, too, and there is much less damage or wear to the RGP pencil. Both measure 8.8cm.