The Well-Appointed Desk

For sometime now, I’ve been collecting vintage Esterbrook fountain pens. They were my introduction to budget fountain pens and the wide array of nibs that were available for them. Not to mention that those celluloid colors really are lovely.

If you’re not familiar with Esterbrooks, they were fountain pens sold from 1948 through the early 70s and had replaceable nibs that could be purchased for $0.60-$1.15 depending on if you wanted the standard Renew-Point or the Durachromes. A large portion of these plastic-bodied pens were considered “dollar pens” so even in the 1950s, these were not expensive pens.

I’ve also collected quite a few different nibs over the years. The holy grail was the 9128 Flexible Nib NIB which works beautifully. But in the end, my favorite has become the Fine Stub nib. I am now on the hunt for more of the stub nibs that were available and, of course, a few more body colors to fill out my collection.