Pelikan 400 white?

[fountainpenkid]

After a minute or so of quietly browsing the ruettinger-web.de resource on Pelikan models, I gasped. Why had I never heard of this before? At first, I thought that perhaps 'white' referred to the light unstriped tortoise variety, but as you can see, that is listed as well, as "light tortoise-shell/light tortoise-shell." I searched, and found no other reference to this anywhere. Is this a mistake on the website, or an extremely rare pen yet to be seen on the internet?

See here: http://www.ruettinger-web.de/e-pelikan-modell-400.html

(picture removed for sake of clarity)

[carlos.q]

If anyone has one of these beauties it must be either prof. Rick Propas or Christof (over at FPN).

[Laura N]

There was a light tortoise on eBay not so long ago. It went for a lot. Gorgeous pen.

[fountainpenkid]

I have sent an email to Werner, the site owner, I think. I will see.

[earthdawn]

WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is 1000% stunning.

I have never seen one of those before !

[jos]

The light tortoise is a well known variant of the 1950s Pelikan 400 series. It is scarce but it is surely not obscure.

The light tortoise was produced in the three 1950s ranges (400, 400N and 400NN).

For pictures, check also here:
http://www.pelikan-guide.de/400.html
http://www.pelikan-guide.de/400N.html
http://www.pelikan-guide.de/400NN.html

and

www.rothemel.de/en/Pelikan/Models/Revised-Piston-Fillers

[fountainpenkid]

OK, I have some great news! The pen in question DOES in fact exist! Here's Werner's reply:
Hello Will,
yes, a Pelikan model 400 barrel white and cap white dit really exist, but it is a prototype.
A picture of this pen you can see in the Pelikan book “Writing instruments” from 1997,
page 44 by Juergen Dittmer / Martin Lehmann.
Best regards
Werner

If anyone has this book, please, please, please upload a picture. You will be the first to do so!

[Laura N]

The pen that sold on eBay that I was referring to looked like a 400nn in light tortoise. It went for $1,300 on September 27, to a very lucky buyer. If you search item number 121765734760, you can still find the original listing with photos.

[fountainpenkid]

I think I may have confused a few people with that (stunning) picture of the light tortoise-shell. That is NOT the pen in question! A solid white-white version of the Pelikan 400 is the topic of this discussion.

[Jeph]

I have seen the light tortoise shell in person but never a pure white 400. I do not doubt that they exist though I have no proof.

[jos]

The proof of its existence is in the book ...

The Pelikan book indeed shows an all white model 400 prototype: it has a white cap, white cap dome, white section, white barrel (with green ink window) and white piston knob. It is stated to be a prototype so it may exist as a single specimen only. This pen is shown next to a prototype white/tortoise 400 which looks to be identical to the modern M400 white/tortoise but without the decorative gold bands on the section and piston knob and single gold cap band.

For matters of copyright protection, reproducing the picture from the Pelikan book and posting it here is problematic though.

[fountainpenkid]

The proof of its existence is in the book ...

The Pelikan book indeed shows an all white model 400 prototype: it has a white cap, white cap dome, white section, white barrel (with green ink window) and white piston knob. It is stated to be a prototype so it may exist as a single specimen only. This pen is shown next to a prototype white/tortoise 400 which looks to be identical to the modern M400 white/tortoise but without the decorative gold bands on the section and piston knob and single gold cap band.

For matters of copyright protection, reproducing the picture from the Pelikan book and posting it here is problematic though.

WOW! That is BIG news (for me at least)! When you say identical to the modern M400 white/tortoise, do you mean the barrel color is the same? Or is its vintage equivalent, the celluloid used on the Pelikan 500 "tortoise brown" what it uses?

[jos]

The proof of its existence is in the book ...

The Pelikan book indeed shows an all white model 400 prototype: it has a white cap, white cap dome, white section, white barrel (with green ink window) and white piston knob. It is stated to be a prototype so it may exist as a single specimen only. This pen is shown next to a prototype white/tortoise 400 which looks to be identical to the modern M400 white/tortoise but without the decorative gold bands on the section and piston knob and single gold cap band.

For matters of copyright protection, reproducing the picture from the Pelikan book and posting it here is problematic though.

WOW! That is BIG news (for me at least)! When you say identical to the modern M400 white/tortoise, do you mean the barrel color is the same? Or is its vintage equivalent, the celluloid used on the Pelikan 500 "tortoise brown" what it uses?

Because of the colour combination, that pen looks like the modern M400 tortoise/white but the tortoise is the vintage one.
So it is actually a 1950s tortoise 400 but cap, cap top, section and piston knob are white.

Interestingly, the second edition of the Pelikan book shows another picture of the white/white 400 prototype (probably the same pen as in the first edition but a different picture) while the tortoise/white prototype is not shown anymore in that second edition.