Welcome to- The Fountain Pen Community!

Hurray, the book is done! --Ron Lee

Looks like a great book! --Donald Haupt

This is really impressive, a stellar work. --Len Provisor

Your project seems most worthwhile. --Stephen Overbury

I am sure it will prove to be a valuable addition to our literature. --Fred Gorstein

Looks very interesting.  Must have taken you years to complete. --Terry Mawhorter

Thank you very much for your outstanding work in this magnificent book. --Marta Michnej

Good job.  Very helpful to have the numbers that reference the Patent office site. --Masa Sunami

the book looks to be a useful manifestation of the obsession that characterizes our hobby.  more books [is] always a good thing. --david isaacson

I feel committed to support any person that contributes to the pen collectors community.  I buy EVERY book about pens, and your book has an important place in my library. --Tsachi Mitsenmacher

If you are seriously interested in pen history, there is not another book like it on the market. The pen community owes a huge debt of gratitude to George for his diligent and conscientious efforts.  --David Shepherd

I've long said that the two best resources for pen history are ads and patents, and youve now created the straightforward tool for pursuing the latter--really fantastic!  I enjoyed your Introduction very much--so well written and interesting.  --Tim Barker

Your book arrived in superb shape--pristine is the right word! I can see that I have lots of digging to do to tap into the treasure trove of information.  Also, your choice of illustrations made me smile, especially the proto-pocket-protector.  Thanks for everything. Look forward to seeing the other volume when it becomes ready for prime time! --Jack Leone

Very interesting.  I can't wait for volume one and the early stuff. --Fultz

how'd you get so good with the patents thing?  good stuff. --david isaacson

Fountain Pen Patent Book for collectors of pens, pencils, ink bottles, inkwells, etc....

Email me at: penpatents@gmail.com

The book is titled Fountain Pen Patents 1911 to the 50s: An Index Of The Later Pensmiths, ISBN 0978113403, and I am the author. It is the second of a projected 2-volume work, an annotated chronological list of US patents, designs, and trademarks for fountain pens, nibs, penmaking machinery, penholders, mechanical pencils, wooden pencils, inks, ink bottles, inkwells, inkstands, erasers, blotters, pencil sharpeners, and other writing instruments and implements. It consists of three chapters, "Patents", "Designs", and "Trademarks", including those for pens made by Carey, Carter, Chilton, Crocker, Holland, Kraker, Mabie Todd & Co., Montblanc, Namiki, Parker, Pelikan, Pilot, Sheaffer, Swan, Wahl Eversharp, Waterman, Wearever, Wirt, etc. There is an extensive "Bibliography", and an "Index" section to help locate penmakers, companies, and pen mechanisms. There is a frontispiece illustration of a bandless Parker Duofold facing the title page, and images are placed at the beginning of every chapter and section. The book measures 11½" x 8¾", is 320 pages long, and weighs 3 lbs. It is printed on opaque, acid-free, archival 80 lb. paper with 12-pt Garamond type, which is very reader-friendly for tired, old eyes. It is bound in Smythe-sewn signatures between hardback covers for maximum archival longevity. The pages lay flat for easy reading and consultation when the book is opened up and laid down on a desk. The book is a limited edition, and every copy is inscribed with an edition number in scarlet-orange ink on the Colophon page at the back of the book. This copy is number "60". A specially designed and custom-fitted cardboard box was made for shipping, so that the book wont get damaged.

Anyone who purchases a copy of Volume 2 will be placed on a mailing list for the announcement of the publication of the forthcoming Volume 1. As an adjunct to the book, and to facilitate searching the text, I intend to release both volumes on CD eventually, but I will be selling the CD only to those who have both volumes of the book. Those who buy both volumes will also receive a CD with approximately 1,375 trademarks in PDF format. Here's the frontispiece and title page.

Here are four examples of the page layout. They show the top half of the first page of the patents, designs, and trademarks chapters, and the index. These images give you an idea of what the pages look like on paper.

And here's a picture of the spine and the binding.

A good pen-patent resource should have quantity, but to some degree you also expect quality and depth. It should not be haphazardly prepared, and should not be just a database of patents, in order, by issue number. Depth and quantity should not be confused. What good is all that data, if you are not able to figure out how they all fit together, and if you are not able to put them into proper relationship? What you can expect in this book is one stop shopping for your patents, and the ability to see similar filling mechanisms, and even the ability to look up who was doing what for whom in the industry. This book accomplishes that with cross-referencing, contextualization, annotation, and indexing.

One of the uses of this book is to extract pen history, but it could also be used as a repair manual to help repair a certain model of pen, or it could be used to find old pen machinery and penmaking techniques. It's not just one book, but three. It's a history book that tells us where pens came from. It's a parts manual that tells us something about how the pens fit together. But most importantly, it's a textbook of repair. This book gives us the information about a pen's heredity that should enable us to come up with diagnostics and preventive repair strategies for pen ailments.

While I was preparing the book, I collected groups of favorite patents, designs, trademarks, and goofy images. I wrote some articles about these patents, designs, and trademarks, and I posted them on various pen message boards in two series I titled "Some Of My Favorite Pen Patents" and "Some Of My Favorite Pen Trademarks". So if you want to see a few examples of the type of research that this book makes possible, take a look at the 43 links in this thread,

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13358

and the 43 links in this thread.

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=153417

I am selling the book for $125.00 USD plus shipping. Payment will be by bank money order, or cashier's check. I also accept cash. I will mail the book out promptly after your payment is deposited in my bank account. The Airmail shipping and handling charge varies according to where you live, and it includes online tracking and $200.00 worth of insurance. Airmail is around $10-15.00 within Canada, $15-25.00 to continental USA, and International shipping is about $20-50.00, depending upon the distance. Airmail within Canada and to the US takes about 4-7 business days, and International Airmail usually takes about 10 business days, more or less. Xpresspost shipping is faster, but it costs around $10-25.00 within Canada, and $20-35.00 to continental USA. There is also cheaper Surface Mail for international shipments, $22.50 to everywhere else in the world, but it takes a slow 6-8 weeks. Sorry, no returns.

Sincerely,

George Kovalenko.

The Writing Hand Press
Phone: 306.244.6096
Saskatchewan, Canada
Email: penpatents@gmail.com

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"Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print". --Byron.

WES Journal Review

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