A school pen from Hanover, and the ink works behind it

By Porter Lang

Start with the mechanism, because it is what a buyer should check first. According to Pelikan’s own timeline and two history pages, the company began making piston-filler fountain pens in 1929.

A firm that began with colour

The firm did not start with pens. According to a collectors’ history site, Pelikan-Collectibles, the chemist Carl Hornemann (1811 to 1896) began a paint and ink business in Hanover in 1832, and operations officially started on 28 April 1838. The retailer Dromgoole’s, in a history on its blog, also gives April 1838 and says Hornemann opened a paint and ink factory.

There is the first disagreement: 1832 or 1838. Our reading: one date may be the business and the other the factory, but neither page says so.

Pelikan’s own timeline starts later, with Indian ink becoming a best seller in 1896.

Who owned the bird

Both history pages agree that the chemist Günther Wagner bought the firm in 1871. Pelikan-Collectibles gives his years as 1842 to 1930, and says he had been plant manager. Dromgoole’s says he joined in 1863.

The pelican, Pelikan-Collectibles says, is Wagner’s family emblem, used as the firm’s hallmark from 1878. Dromgoole’s says Wagner designed the logo in 1878 from his family crest, and that it became one of the first registered trademarks in Germany. Pelikan-Collectibles then counts the chicks. The logo first showed three, was cut to two in 1937 by the graphic artist Oskar Werner Hermann Hadank, and has shown one since 2003. Pelikan’s own timeline names Hadank’s redesign in 1938, on the firm’s hundredth anniversary, as a logo that would stay for the next sixty years. Those dates are close but not the same.

The 1929 piston filler

Pelikan’s timeline calls 1929 the birth of its fountain pen and says its outer “trademark” is the green marbled band. Dromgoole’s gives the same year, calls the pen the Model 100, and adds a green marbled barrel and an ink window. Pelikan-Collectibles says the piston filler was later known as the Model 100.

Who devised the filling system? Pelikan-Collectibles names a Hungarian engineer, Theodor Kovacs, and says Pelikan acquired his patent in 1925. Dromgoole’s says only that Pelikan acquired patents in the 1920s for a differential piston-filling system and names no inventor. A page we only saw as a search excerpt gave 1927 for the sale of the patents and 1929 for the re-patenting under the firm’s name. We did not read that page in full, so we do not use its dates.

The Pelikano

Pelikan’s timeline says the Pelikano pen was presented in 1960 as a product of close collaboration between writing teachers and fountain-pen designers. Pelikan-Collectibles calls it a student fountain pen. Dromgoole’s says it became a staple of European classrooms, which is a retailer’s phrase and not a count.

In 1974, according to Pelikan, the firm worked with educators on a simplified handwriting for beginners, and the Pelikano became more important because of it. Pelikan-Collectibles dates the simplified script to the early 1970s and says it was partly taken into school curricula. The producer’s page also says a new factory was occupied in 1973 and that its pens, painting and office products are still made there. In 2010, for the pen’s fiftieth year, a design in red, blue and green was announced.

What to look for in a pen

The sources do not tell us how to judge a pen, and we will not invent a checklist. What they support is smaller:

A piston filler is the mechanism the 1929 pen introduced, according to the producer’s timeline and both history pages.
A green marbled band is the 1929 pen’s outer trademark, according to Pelikan.
An ink window is part of the Model 100, according to the retailer’s history.
The Pelikano is the school model, from 1960.

For anything beyond that, such as nib sizes, ink choice and how to look after a pen, the maker’s own pages and a specialist pen shop are the places to ask.

Dates in order

1832 or 1838: Hornemann’s business begins, according to Pelikan-Collectibles and Dromgoole’s.
1871: Wagner takes over, according to both history pages.
1878: the pelican emblem is first used, according to both.
1925: Pelikan acquires the piston patent, according to Pelikan-Collectibles.
1929: first fountain pen, according to all three.
1960: the Pelikano.
1974: the simplified-handwriting work, according to Pelikan.

Side by side

Business start: 1832 (Pelikan-Collectibles) against 1838 (both history pages).
Patent: acquired 1925 (Pelikan-Collectibles) against “the 1920s” (Dromgoole’s).
Logo change to two chicks: 1937 (Pelikan-Collectibles) against a redesign credited to 1938 (Pelikan).

What kind of sources these are

The producer’s own timeline, a collectors’ history site and a retailer’s blog. All three have an interest in the brand, and one of them is a retailer. We found no museum, archive or patent-office page, so the patent dates should be read as claims.

Questions a buyer would ask

When did Pelikan make its first fountain pen? In 1929, according to the producer, the collectors’ site and the retailer.

What is a Pelikano? The student pen launched in 1960, according to all three sources.

Is it the same company today? We did not find a source that answers that, so we do not say.

What we left out

Prices, nib and ink advice, a nickname for a later model, a count of staff from the anniversary year, and a school magazine the firm published.

Quick answers

When did Pelikan launch its first fountain pen? According to Pelikan’s own timeline, 1929. Its outer trademark is the green marbled band. A retailer’s history calls that pen the Model 100, with an ink window.

What is the Pelikano? According to Pelikan’s timeline, a pen presented in 1960 after close collaboration between writing teachers and pen designers. A collectors’ history site calls it a student fountain pen.

Why is the logo a pelican? A collectors’ history site says it is Günther Wagner’s family emblem, used as the firm’s hallmark from 1878. A retailer says it was based on his family crest.

Roam first. Shop later.

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