Ultra Fountain Pen c1958

by Jim Mamoulides, August 29, 2015

The Ultra Fountain Pen for Him, closed

A "sensational" antique store find

I stumbled onto the Ultra Fountain Pen line while on an annual trip to Maine. This particular small town antique store had a complete dealer package with ten of the pens, a counter display, warranty cards and advertising cards. The shop owner told me that the pens were originally owned by a shop that intended to distribute them in Maine in the late 1950s. He thought they were being sold in 1958. The set was a complete dealer marketing package so a store could advertise and display the pens.

I think it was the counter display card that caught my attention most. Would these pens be sensational to write with? Would the Ultra Fountain Pen live up to its billing as, "One of the World's Finest Fountain Pens." That's a towering claim, indeed. And all the way from Italy! I bought the lot and took them home for closer inspection.

There are two models of the Ultra Fountain Pen. The Ultra Fountain Pen for Him has a gold plated metal cap and barrel with a repeating four lines with blank space linear engraving pattern and a gold plated wire loop pocket clip. The Ultra Fountain Pen for Her has a black enameled metal cap and barrel with an engraved gold filled continuous crosshatch design that loops at the edges. It has a gold plated clip with five consecutive chevrons on the bottom face and gold plated trim.

Ultra Fountain Pen dealer stand-up counter display stand

The Ultra Fountain Pen warranty card indicates that the pens were imported from Italy by the Ultra Pen Corporation of 609 Fifth Avenue in New York City, a midtown Manhattan office and retail building that as of this writing houses the American Girl Place toy store. I've been searching for more information about the company and this pen line for some years and have capitulated to the original story by the antique shop owner in Maine. By 1959, the pen market was growing rapidly. According to statistics from the Fountain Pen and Mechanical Pencil Manufacturers' Association published in the August, 1959 Sheaffer's Review, the overall market grew 30 percent year over year to about 770 million units, with ballpoint pens outselling all other writing instruments 6 to 1. The price per unit sold was also dropping. It would seem that the market was open to new entrants, especially with value priced offerings.

The Ultra Fountain Pen for Her, closed

The Ultra Fountain Pen was marketed as a value priced pen with high end features. An all metal, gold plated pen with Italian styling might hit a sweet spot between cheap Wearever pens and expensive Sheaffer Snorkels and Parker 61s. The $3.50 price point would be very attractive to someone looking for an all metal hooded nib pen like the Parker 61 and not wanting to pay $15 to $20 for it. Consider that the price range Ultra was targeting included school pens like the all plastic $3.75 Sheaffer Cadet.

Ultra Fountain Pen dealer advertising cards

Some collectors, such as Giovanni Abrate, have posted that they believe the Ultra Fountain Pen is a branded product made for the USA by the Italian manufacturer LUS. LUS, an abbreviation of Legnani Umberto, Saronno, was founded c1928 in Saronno, near Milan, in northern Italy, by Umberto Legnani and his wife Giuseppina Carnelli. The company first produced steel nibs and other stationery products. LUS held numerous pen related patents and made very similar syringe filling pens in the 1950s. LUS was a play on the Italian word lusso, meaning luxury.

The Ultra Fountain Pen for Him, open

A closer look at the Ultra

The nib is gold plated stainless steel and instead of tipping, the tines are folded. According to Giovanni Abrate, "These nibs were very popular in Italy in low cost pens, such as the LUS Atomica. They wrote well (we used them in school, where we had to take dictation, so they had to be reliable writers). They had to be used with a light touch, as they would bend very easily." The only nib grade observed is a fine, and similar observations are seen from for sale postings of these pens.

The Ultra Fountain Pen for Her, open, with a Parker 61

The Ultra Fountain Pen is a syringe filler. This is a very simple filling system where the barrel is removed, the nib is dunked into an inkwell, and the syringe is pulled out, drawing ink into the clear chamber. Flushing or emptying the pen is a matter of cycling the syringe unit to expel ink or water until clear.

The Ultra Fountain Pen for Him, open showing filled syringe filler unit

The Ultra Fountain Pen can be disassembled for servicing. Several people who have these pens have reported this on pen discussion boards. I've observed the plunger can get quite stiff after fifty some years. The syringe filler's ink reservoir is threaded to the section and sealed, so with some heat, the seal can be broken and it can be unscrewed. I would advise care be taken removing the filler unit so as not to break it. The plunger may need some lubrication, such as silicone grease in order to make it operate more smoothly. Resealing with a little shellac would ensure that the pen could be serviced again.

Lacking any hallmarking, the pens appear to be gold electroplated. The engraving on the The Ultra Fountain Pen for Him is a bit light. The Ultra Fountain Pen for Her has a very thin enamel that appears susceptible to chipping off. New old stock examples consistently show this. The enameling is also not consistently even. On all pens, the cap band engraving is not aligned the same on every example. One would think that the Ultra name would always appear under the clip, but not so.

The Ultra Fountain Pen for Him and for Her, open showing filled and empty syringe filling units

Identification guide and features:

There is very limited original documentation on this pen. I was able to find a dealer kit at an antique store that was represented dating from 1958 from a long closed retail store. The package included a counter display, advertising cards and warranty cards. The pens were packaged individually in white jewelry style cardboard boxes. Based on some Ultra pens for sale in original packaging, it appears that they may have arrived initially in boxes of twelve, with six pens of each style.

Ultra Fountain Pen for Him:

• Gold plated metal cap and barrel
• Cap and barrel have repeating four lines with blank space linear engraving
• Gold plated wire loop pocket clip
• Cap top is angled from front to back
• Cap band area is engraved "ULTRA MADE IN ITALY"
• Pull off cap
• Barrel lip has red three banded accent
• Semi hooded gold plated stainless steel nib
• Black resin section
• All observed pens have fine nibs
• Syringe type filling mechanism
• Small ink view window at top of barrel when pen is open for writing
• 5 1/8 inches long capped, 5 7/8 inches long with the cap posted on the barrel
• Retail price was $3.50

Ultra Fountain Pen for Her:

• Black enamel metal cap and barrel with engraved gold filled crosshatch design
• Gold plated trim
• Gold plated clip with five consecutive chevrons on the bottom face
• Cap top is angled from front to back
• Cap band area is engraved "ULTRA MADE IN ITALY"
• Pull off cap
• Semi hooded gold plated stainless steel nib
• Black resin section
• All observed pens have fine nibs
• Syringe type filling mechanism
• Small ink view window at top of barrel when pen is open for writing
• 5 1/8 inches long capped, 5 7/8 inches long with the cap posted on the barrel
• Retail price was $3.50

Performance

The Ultra Fountain Pen for Her, open

My first impression of the Ultra Fountain Pens is that they are intended to be stylish and inexpensive. There are many design choices that point to more expensive pens, the Parker 61 in particular. The pen is all metal construction and similar in size to the Parker 61. The Ultra Fountain Pen for Him is an all gold plate cap and barrel pen with an engraved line pattern similar to Parker Insignia pens. Both pens have a pull off cap that reveals a long tapered section with a semi-hooded nib design that evokes Parker hooded nib sections. The pen line has some nice touches, such as the angled cap top, interesting clip designs and the spiral engraving on the Ultra Fountain Pen for Her. Open, the pens have a narrow ink-vue window where the section meets the barrel.

The Ultra Fountain Pen for Her with a Parker 61

On the other hand, there clearly were cost-driven decisions made that show up in the fit and finish of the pen. While the gold plating looks good, the enamel on the Ultra Fountain Pen for Her is not consistently even to the edges of the engraved area and appears to be very light and susceptible to wear. Several examples show paint flake off problems. The engraving on the cap band looks very plain and utilitarian. And on a really odd note, with the cap band engraving the Ultra name should appear directly below the clip, but it is inconsistently placed and can appear on the opposite side, indicating no attention was paid to this detail.

Detail of the Ultra Fountain Pen cap band engraving. Note the enamel coverage and flaking.

The Ultra Fountain Pen is an average size pen from the 1950s, being 5 1/8 inches long capped and 5 7/8 inches long with the cap posted on the barrel. Given the sharpness of the cap edge and the evident problems with the enamel, I would not post the pen as I believe it will scuff and wear the finish. The very long section makes the pen plenty long in the hand to use without posting it. The clip attaches high on the cap, so the pen will sit low and secure in a deep pocket.

The Ultra Fountain Pen nib section detail next to a Parker 61 nib section

The syringe filling unit probably operated very smoothly when the pen was new, but today, these units are quite stiff. On the test pen, I cycled the unit in a wide coffee mug of filtered soapy water and after several cycles it started to loosen up. The syringe unit fills very full from an ink bottle. Some collectors have taken the filler units apart, as they unscrew from the section, and have added lubrication such as silicone grease. The unit is sealed to the section, so I would recommend taking a lot of care in trying to remove the unit or you may break it.

The nib is the real surprise with this pen. Amazingly smooth and even writing. I really had trouble putting the pen down and found lots of excuses to write with it and take it places. All the examples I have seen write a fine line. No documentation indicates any nib choices.

So how does the Ultra Fountain Pen stand up against its claims of being sensational and, "One of the World's Finest Fountain Pens?" From a fit and finish point of view, these pens are indeed great writers that feel nice in the hand. There is no way to judge how well the syringe filler worked when new, but no USA manufacturers used it in the late 1950s, so no marks there. The pens fit together well, but the finish is variable, especially with the black enameling. Altogether probably worth the price, but definitely not top tier.

When these pens show up for sale, they generally sell for modest prices. They are hardly collectibles, but are very nice daily users. I would query a seller about stiffness in the filler unit, whether it has been serviced, condition of the plating / finish, and ask for the nib to be tested. You could be in for a very pleasant surprise!

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Acknowledgement

Thanks to Giovanni Abrate for additional information on the Ultra Fountain Pens.

References

LUS, FountainPen.it

NYC Building That Houses American Girl Going Up for Sale, David M Levitt, Bloomberg Business, June 4, 2015

The pens of LUS, Giovanni Abrate, pentrace, Copyright © 2000, 2014 pentrace.net

Sheaffer's Review, August, 1960, page 2