日本輸入筆記具協会 / Japan Imported Pen Association

Established in 1978, the non-profit organization "Japan Imported Pen Association" is an importer and distributor of fountain pens, ballpoint pens, mechanical pencils, roller-balls, and other writing instruments made in foreign countries.

Apparently, they distributed a catalog to their members since the start of the association but I haven't seen any pictures of such a catalogue from before 1990. If you search, please be aware that until 1992, the name of the catalogue was "The Pen". From 1993, it was renamed into "The Pen Catalogue".

Many famous pen brands were members, even Montblanc was there until the mid 1990s.

I have a complete set from 1998 until 2019. Older issues became increasingly expensive to acquire, so I stopped collecting them after I stopped collecting pens. This set is for sale now. (このセットは現在販売予定である。) Contact

You can see the newest catalogue (at the time of writing the catalogue from 2024) here: https://www.ebis.co.jp/mochizuki/ebook/pencatalogue/HTML5/pc.html#/page/1

It was (is) a valuable source to check if sellers at Yahoo Auctions reported correct prices for their pens offered. Often they didn't.

Below is an example of the pen catalogue from 2013.

And another example; the pen catalogue from 2004.

Comments

Silver pens

Just be cautious to know the difference between the different silver types if you buy a silver pen - I use some lines from Wikipedia - do not claim I could say it better. Real silver Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver. Argentium silver (patented in 1998) is a brand of modern tarnish-resistant silver alloys, containing either 93.5%, 94% or 96% silver. Argentium alloys replace some of the copper in the traditional sterling silver (92.5% silver + 7.5% copper) with the metalloid germanium. Argentium 935, Argentium 940 and Argentium 960 alloys exceed the standard required for hallmarking as sterling silver, and Argentium 960 silver meets the standard for hallmarking as Britannia silver (95.84% silver). Silvadium, Sterlium is 93% silver, and other metals Sterling silver is an alloy composed by weight of 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925. and then there i...

"Gemini pens"

It's play time. I asked Gemini to create some fountain pens. Unfortunately, Gemini still has some problems in creating a fountain pen. I am still working on how to make reliably such a pen with Gemini. The problem could be with my prompts or it could be on the Gemini side. Nevertheless - enjoy!

Pen books on my book shelves

Books in English 1) Maki-e: A Story Waiting to be Written – A Journey through the World of Lacquered Fountain Pens. Alberto Gerosa 2012 2) Collectible Stars 1 1908-1947 2014 edition Jens Rösler, Stefan Wallrafen 3) PELIKAN The Brand Detmar Schaefer 2013 (in transparent cellophane dust jacket) 4) Fountain Pens: Vintage and Modern Andreas Lambrou 1990/1995? 5) Fountain Pens: United States of America and United Kingdom Lambrou, Andreas 2000 6) Fountain Pens of Japan Lambrou, Andreas; Masamichi Sunami 2012 7) Fountain Pens of the World Lambrou, Andreas 1995 8) The Ultimate Book of Pens Dietmar Geyer 2010 9) Collectible fountain pens : Parker, Sheaffer, Wahl-Eversharp, Waterman Bowen, Glen 1982 (10) Lacquer : an international history and collector's guide Jonathan Bourne ... [et al.] 1984 11) Fountain Pens = Penne Stilografiche (Bella Cosa Library) Fortis, Alex; Vannucchi, Antonio 1995 12) Pen Passion: a Cylindrical Obsession by Jac Zagoory, Rachel Yohai, Hilda Chan 1992 13) The Pen: ...

MKE's view on pens

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