Writing with
a Collector’s Flourish

by Luanna Crow

“None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try”
~ Mark Twain

Take a gander at the pocket of Dr. Donald Gordon’s white coat.
It’s full of pens – not particularly surprising unless you know they are collectors’ items and part of an extensive inventory that ranges from Mont Blancs to Japanese animal pens with 40 coats of lacquer.

A professor of emergency health services at UTHSCSA and EMS medical director for both San Antonio and Leon Valley, Dr. Gordon has always loved fountain pens. He recalls saving during medical school for a $16.75 silver Parker Chiselle. Today it’s worth more than $200.

“I keep an inventory,” he said. “I sell and buy and repair and refill, and when somebody needs an unusual type of pen I find it for him. And when charitable types need a donation, I give them a pen.”

Dr. Gordon has modern pens, limited editions and several vintage pens. “The oldest is an 1863 pen made out of mutta plastic – one of the first plastics – and possibly carried by a Union soldier.”

Among the limited editions, he owns the entire series of Mont Blancs introduced in 1993. The first in the series, the Lorenzo d’Medici, recently sold for 5,500 pounds at a British auction. Also part of a modern series is a Monte Rosa fountain pen engineered to work and write like a ball pen. He also owns four Japanese Nimiki pens. The company, its factory established in the early 1900s by the British, has since been taken over by the Japanese.

“They’ve done some beautiful things,” Dr. Gordon said. “In the late 1990s, they started an animal series.” Using a process called mak-a-e-e, artisans apply 40 coats of lacquer to the barrel, sanding between each coat and using gold dust, pearl, and stone pigment to create an image. He first acquired the white tiger, later adding the owl, eagle and cobra. “I love the owl in that series,” he mused. “Its eyes glow.”

Dr. Gordon described the Nimiki pens as “flawless, like the Mont Blanc of Japan. They also come with pretty boxes and ink jars.”

Another of his favorites, also an animal, is a very rare pen (one of 200) snake design made by a Chicago jeweler. Other unusual specimens include a 2-inch pen made by Waterman between 1900 and 1920; a 1948 Italian Omas Coronado that splits into two pens, with one half writing in red and the other in black; and an 8-inch-long pen from Japan made with strips of abalone shell.

Dr. Gordon actually uses many of his pens, but doesn’t worry about losing them because he always holds the cap in one hand while writing with the other. And, although he doesn’t know how many pens he has, he rotates among about 50 for daily use.

“I carry one to sign with, one that’s a fine point, and one that’s medium. I also carry one or two ordinary ballpoints.” The latter is for times when someone asks, “Hey, can I borrow a pen?”

 

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