Vintage pens provided by Europens are in the hands of Michael Fassbender and Rachael Weisz, the stars of The Light Between Oceans being filmed now in Otago and Marlborough.

The Dreamworks production is based on the Australian novel by M.L. Stedman about an island lighthouse keeper and his wife after World War I who stumble across a boat containing a dead man and a living baby.

The 1920s was a time when the fountain pen was king, and the Parker Duofold was the king of fountain pens.  So watch out for our Duofold “Big Red” and other vintage fountain and dip pens when the movie is released next year.  Not to mention the beautiful South Island settings masquerading as Tasmania.

Pen brand consolidation continues with A.T. Cross buying Sheaffer from the French BIC Group for US $15 million. A.T. Cross was itself bought not so long ago by a private equity firm, Clarion Partners.

Both Sheaffer and Cross had a long history of making fine writing instruments in the United States.

Of the world’s other leading pen brands, Parker and Waterman are owned by another American corporation Newell Rubbermaid. The two big German brands remain in private hands, Lamy owned by descendants of Josef Lamy and Montblanc by South Africa’s Rupert family as one of their Richemont group of luxury brands.

Waterman Expert matte black/chrome trim ballpen 50% off – NOW $100
 

Waterman Expert Urban Brown ballpen (one only) – 50% off NOW $150 with bonus leather pen case

Yard-o-Led Corinthian sterling silver ballpen (one only) – 50% off NOW $400
 

Cross Townsend Black lacquer rhodium trim 30% off – fountain pen NOW $448, rollerball $220 and ballpen $161

Lamy Safari Neon Yellow fountain pen and rollerball 50% off – NOW $27.50 and $20 respectively

Waterman Perspective Blue lacquer or Azure ballpens 50% off – NOW $108

Waterman Hemisphere Deluxe Silk chrome trim ballpen 25% off - NOW $105

Filofax mini ballpens 35% off – NOW $50.  Available in half-tone silver in black, blue or pink and the all- yellow, pink or purple

Montblanc celebrates the lightness of summer with its Cruise collection, a well-priced range of ballpens and rollerballs just arrived with a particular eye on the corporate market.  Gold Club members can buy the ballpen (retail $375) or rollerball ($395) in Atlantic Blue, Coral Orange or Luminescent White.  

Like other Montblanc models, each Cruise has the trademark white resin star atop, can be engraved, has its own unique serial number and comes in the standard Montblanc presentation case.

This is the pen which the pen-collector of the family longed for but I made him wait months until his birthday.  The Parker Premier Black Edition is according to our reviewers, the best pen Parker has produced in decades.

Its brass body is covered with a nickel-palladium alloy, then a ceramic coating which gives it a sheen like oiled bronze.  Stealth Fighter is another phrase used to describe the Premier’s precision styling – available as fountain pen with a particularly flexible 18 kt solid gold nib, rollerball or ballpen.