Vintage 1972 Waterman Concorde Piano Black Fountain Pen with 18kt Gold Nib and Gold Plated Trim

Vintage 1972 Waterman Concorde Piano Black Fountain Pen with 18kt Gold Nib and Gold Plated Trim

Good overall condition, with signs of wear / light scratches due to age / normal use for a 50 year old pen.

Please also note there is a small hairline crack on the right side of the nib - visible in close-up photos attached. It doesn't impact the writing performance of the pen.

Made in France and one of the first flagship models that they released circa 1972. Waterman was one of the elite fountain pen brands along with Parker, Sheaffer, Mont Blanc, Conway Stewart, Pelican, Lamy, Montegrappa, Easterbrook, Faber-Castell and Cross.

Tested and writes well, as per example shown. Unserviced.

Please study the pictures as they form part of the description including the dimensions oif the pen.

Waterman presentation box and instruction manual is included in the sale.

PEOPLE SHOULD PRACTICE THEIR WRITING WITH A GOOD FOUNTAIN PEN, AS IT IS GREAT EXERCISE FOR THE BRAIN!

Collection in Malahide/Swords |Area

WATERMAN CONCORDE BIO (INTERNET RESEARCH)

Very Rare and Futuristic Waterman Concorde Aviation Design Fountain Pen Complete with Box, France 1972

Concorde, the aircraft, was the European aerospace industry’s flagship of the 1970s... Equally, the Concorde Fountain Pen – created to reflect the same aesthetic design as the iconic, identically named, airliner - was the venerable Waterman's flagship pen in the same epoch.

Considered a summit in fountain pen design, the Concord was born on January 23rd 1967 when designer Roger Perraud filed for a U.S. Patent … granted December 3, 1968 No. D212’866… on his very original new fountain pen design.

This incorporated a cylindrical body, hand-grip section with three facets on its upper half, plus matching nib integrated directly with these facets... All crowned by a tapered bark-finish metal cap, rendered distinctively unique by two large triangular bevels astride the pocket clip as well as a bevel at the pen’s cap top-composed of two smooth inclined surfaces. The overall result represented a total departure from all of Waterman’s previous pen designs… and to a large extent from those of any other manufacturer as well.

Also, once in production, most Concorde fountain pens additionally had faceted barrels as well, instead of the round one shown in Perraud’s patent; and this deviation from the original design is one of the Concords’ most distinctively beautiful features: Facets running along almost the entire length, yet softening just before the end, so that the barrel’s culmination is round. Nor are all these facets identical; narrow ones alternate with pairs of wider ones all around the barrel. Additionally, once the section is screwed into the barrel, the facets of both elements align perfectly.

Further, this combination of curved and flattened surfaces, the faceted barrel, the likewise faceted nib, the simultaneous use of smooth and bark finish materials. confer on the Concord a decidedly “futuristic” Mid-Century look”!

In addition, Concorde Fountain Pens were very well finished, even at a microscopic scale, and perform extremely well. This is perhaps the reason why, in 1972, the Waterman Concord won a Gold Medal for “excellent quality” at the prestigious Leipzig International Trade Fair (Leipziger Messe).


Waterman
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Lewis Edson Waterman is credited with inventing the 1st practical fountain pen in 1884.

So the story goes, Waterman, an insurance broker, was getting ready to sign an important contract. For the occasion, he purchased one of those "new" fountain pens that had recently come on the market, thinking it would be more practical and stylish than the dip pen and pocket inkwell he usually carried.

However, when the time came to sign, the pen first refused to write and then badly stained the contract. Waterman rushed back to his office to get another copy, but when he returned, the customer had signed with a rival broker.

On the spot, Waterman determined to devise a "real" fountain pen, one he could depend upon. In his brother's workshop, he analyzed the ink to paper exchange in pens and discovered that the problem lay in the function of the feed, through which the ink first flowed to the nib. After numerous experiments, he developed the "Three Channel Feed, a structure based on the principle of capillary attraction. Waterman was granted a US patent for his invention on February 12, 1884 and variations on it were adopted by all fountain pen manufacturers, so that Waterman's slogan quickly became "the Daddy of Them All".

In 1888, the firm was renamed L.E. Waterman Company. In the following year, at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, Waterman was awarded a bronze medal, the highest honor awarded to a fountain pen designer and manufacturer. From this point forward, innovation followed upon innovation and success upon success, ultimately growing to become by far the most important of the "Big Four" fountain pen manufacturers.

Already by 1903 Waterman pens were sold throughout the United States and Canada... While subsequently, Frank D. Waterman, Lewis Waterman's nephew, led the Waterman name to cross the Atlantic and conquer Europe.

Then, in 1926, a Waterman agent by the name of Jules Fagard established a quasi-independent French subsidiary called JiF-Waterman, to manufacture Waterman pens in France. Here too, a major breakthrough soon was achieved: In the following year, a JiF-Waterman researcher named Perraud invented the ink cartridge! It consisted of a small glass tube with a cork-stopper. Amazingly, this invention was not patented until 1936, but remained a JiF-Waterman exclusive for twenty years!
Pioneer Waterman "1st Ever" Cartridge Filling Fountain Pen, 1930s.