Posted 8 years ago
billmack
(1 item)
I was going through some stored items and I found a pen I had been gifted years ago. It is a stubby, fat, ballpoint pen, labeled: "The Portly Pen" in a small, white box from Brookstone. The pen has a black, matte finish with "gold" trim. It is 5" in length. The box is 5.5" x 1" x 1". There is a small "MADE I N JAPAN" sticker on the body of the pen. The box also has a sticker that reads: "#15883-00 JAPAN". There is a clear plastic sleeve containing a spare ink refill inside the box.
I've tried all kinds of searches on collectables websites and have found nothing about it. I even tried searching Brookstone's website through Archive.org's The Wayback Machine, but I had no luck. I found an old listing with no pictures on eBay Italy, but that's it.
It is not a fine pen by any means. It was gifted to me years ago and I used it once and put it back in the box. I can't recall when I was given this pen, but I guess it might have been in the 1990s.
UPDATE: I have found through various web searches that the design is inpired by, very similar to, or a copy of the the Tombow Zoom Egg.
I inquired with Tombow (a pen manufacturer in Japan since 1913) but the customer service person gave very short and not very helpful answers to my questions. The Tombow Zoom Egg is no longer made. So I still have no real answers. I will inquire with Brookstone.
Any help in learning more about this pen would be greatly appreciated.
I'm having trouble putting the proper ink refill in the barrel. There's a secondary sleeve that is troublesome,
all I saw on it was it was made in 1970 in japan...
I have a similar portly pen from Brookstone, with different finish. The box is exactly the same with a sticker readf #158840 JAPAN.
I would think these pens were probably late 1980's or early 90's. Brookstone opened their first store in 1973 in my old home town of Peterborough, NH. Up into the 80's they sold specialty tools, medical clamps etc. that were not commonly available. as an example I bought a dowel threader at their store which couldn't be found elsewhere. I believe it was around the 80's that they expanded into a little of everything. Their stores were really unique because you could go in and try out anything in the store before you bought it. The first store was across from the high school and way bigger than the school. It was a fun place to go and shop but also expensive. When they expanded and started selling cheap stuff it kind of backfired on them. After their first bankruptcy they never really made a comeback.
Is this a ballpoint or fountain pen?
Well if it is a pen ,designated
to be used in a Fountain Only ..
It would be a Fountain Pen...
But what if you used the term
Ink Pen
The term ink pen would indicate it isn't a pencil or crayon.
I guess if I would had read the description closer, I would have known it was a ballpoint. My bad.