Juan Manuel Clark's 'Collectible Fountain Pens' appeared in 2001 from Flammarion in Paris (English edition 2002) and stands out through its square format of about 14 x 14 cm at a thickness of around 2.7 cm. Unlike many collector books, the writing instruments are not treated maker by maker; for each fountain pen depicted, the author instead tells small stories — e.g. about the Ink-Controlled Fountain Pen of the firm Klio of Hennef/Sieg, originally only obtainable by sending a form with a 50-cent piece to the Spencerian Pen Co. in New York. Other pieces are described with date of production, material and design notes.
Represented are, among others, the German brands Faber-Castell, Klio, Montblanc, Pelikan, Rotring and Soennecken. Content-wise the book is divided into Introduction, Vintage, Precious, Thematic, Unusual, Index and Addresses & Acknowledgments. A short overview of the emergence of writing and writing instruments and a section on advertising items round off the work. Even if the texts can be challenging for readers without English skills, the pictures compensate.