Pelikan piston filler

Pelikan’s first fountain pen of 1929, with a piston that draws up ink and a window showing how much is left.

Pelikan was a maker of inks and paints in Hanover when in 1929 it began making fountain pens. The piston mechanism meant the whole barrel could be filled with ink, with no rubber sac.

The striped green model 400 of 1950 became a classic. The piston filler has been Pelikan’s hallmark ever since.

Materials: Celluloid, ebonite, gold nib

Manufacture: Industrially made in Hanover; the piston mechanism was based on a patent Pelikan had bought.

A knob at the end that screws a piston up and down the barrel.

A transparent ink window in front of the nib.

Striped green celluloid (later models) and the pelican on the cap.

The piston mechanism was based on a patent that Pelikan bought from the Hungarian engineer Theodor Kovács.

A clip shaped like a pelican’s beak, a transparent window between the grip and the striped barrel, and a knob at the very end for the piston.

The Souverän series, to which a large share of Pelikan’s pens have belonged since the 1980s, has the same construction.

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