When does "having a few pens" become a collection?

[Morgaine]

I came across this a while back, but was reminded of it recently. One Man’s Trash . . . The link is a review about a book on compulsive hoarding. Hoarding I take to be more indiscriminate. Collecting has more of a purpose, rather than just anything. I can be a bit picky when it comes to stationery and there are papers/inks/pens, etc I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

[Doulton]

This reminds me of author Donna Tartt making the distinction between the "Classical Mind" and the "Modern Mind".

I believe a true collector curates his pens (or snakes) with surgical intent and resembles the Classical Mind which she describes as "relentless, unhesitating, and focussed".

The group of pens I own have no coherence whatever outside of my own fancy and is clearly put together by a "Modern Mind", that is to say by a "whimsical and discursive mind".

I am delighted by the juxtaposition because "Modern Mind" and your sig line from Cicero.

I collect pens but I also rotate them like a conscientious parent divvying up attention equally amongst the offspring. I also "collect" books and music, but I also use everything I collect.

[pajaro]

I collect plenty of things. I am not a very good collector, because I am utterly disorganized. I fight organization and neatness. At least I admit to being a collector. If you have a group of similar objects, it's a collection. The term "collector" isn't a dirty word. Probably everybody visiting these fora is to some extent a collector.

[Jon Szanto]

I collect plenty of things. I am not a very good collector, because I am utterly disorganized. I fight organization and neatness.

I like a fighter!

[Kulprit]

There’s a definite distinction between “collector” and “accumulator.”

I collect watches.

I collect guns.

I accumulate pens.

My watch and gun purchases typically conform to some overall plan, and many are acquired not for use, but primarily for the sake of possession.

My pen purchases are less organized. Everything I buy I do so because I’m either attracted to the pen aesthetically, or because it fills some practical“need”, actual or conjured-up solely for the purpose of justifying the purchase. All my pens get used; anything that doesn’t gets sold.

I rarely sell watches, even if they don’t get worn. I never sell guns.


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[catbert]

All my pens get used; anything that doesn’t gets sold.

To me, part of accumulation is never selling. Even if I don't use a pen much, I got it and I'm keeping it because pretty.

A collector, on the other hand, might sell or trade strategically to improve the quality and completeness of their collection.

[VertOlive]

I am delighted by the juxtaposition because "Modern Mind" and your sig line from Cicero.

Ah, good. So you "get" Classical.

[Pterodactylus]

There I think we have something in common, I also usually do not sell things (beside switching a car (or a motorbike in the past)).
Iˋm like a black hole, what I acquired once stays usually with me, most likely because selling things is too cumbersome for me.
If I really do not like something, I gift it to somebody who might like it or have use for it (mainly family and friends).

Luckily I think usually carefully before buying something (beside inks and art supplies) and I tend to use things until they do not work anymore, so Iˋm not a spontaneous buyer, otherwise I might had a problem.....

[pajaro]

There’s a definite distinction between “collector” and “accumulator.”

I collect watches.

I collect guns.

I accumulate pens.

My watch and gun purchases typically conform to some overall plan, and many are acquired not for use, but primarily for the sake of possession.

My pen purchases are less organized. Everything I buy I do so because I’m either attracted to the pen aesthetically, or because it fills some practical“need”, actual or conjured-up solely for the purpose of justifying the purchase. All my pens get used; anything that doesn’t gets sold.

I rarely sell watches, even if they don’t get worn. I never sell guns.


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I do not believe this is a meaningful distinction.

[pajaro]

All my pens get used; anything that doesn’t gets sold.

To me, part of accumulation is never selling. Even if I don't use a pen much, I got it and I'm keeping it because pretty.

A collector, on the other hand, might sell or trade strategically to improve the quality and completeness of their collection.

I think this is another meaningless distinction.

[FredRydr]

To me, part of accumulation is never selling. Even if I don't use a pen much, I got it and I'm keeping it because pretty.

A collector, on the other hand, might sell or trade strategically to improve the quality and completeness of their collection.

I think this is another meaningless distinction.

Well, the latter is a collection while the former is a hoard.

[catbert]

I think this is another meaningless distinction.

Perhaps not to you. And, yes, in a broader sense, a collection/accumulation/hoard is just a big pile o’ pens. But to the perpetrator of said collection/accumulation/hoard (and perhaps also to those who might view it), it makes a world of difference. I would rather visit the Soane Museum than the Collyer house.

One might equally say there’s no meaningful difference between murder and manslaughter — someone is dead — and yet the distinction exists and involves intent. Arguably the question of intent also applies to collection v accumulation.

[Wuddus]

I'm neither collector, hoarder, nor accumulator. I have more pens than I need, but didn't set out to acquire that many. I just wanted to find a few pens I liked. Three to be specific.

Now that I have those three, my pen purchasing has stopped. I'm unlikely to ever buy another. The ones I'm less enthusiastic about which I bought along the way, just live in a drawer. There's no point in throwing them away as they still work. They're not worth selling, as they're cheaper to buy shipped from the far east, than it would be for me to post them on. They might be used as spares, or gifted away. Either way, they don't take up much room, so I don't care. I do have spares of one of the three I like, so they would be reached for sooner than the other surplus.

So I'm just a user that accumulated some pens while trying to find what I wanted. The fact I only use three, but own...I've forgotten how many I own, at least a dozen... is irrelevant to me, and the spares only have enough worth to not throw them in the garbage.

[pajaro]

I get the impression that y'all think a collection is an organized accumulation, or a regimented hoard, like the Air Force was a regimented bunch of people who wanted to be somewhere else. I also get the distinct impression that y'all think collections are a bad thing, because y'all are going to lengths to avoid thinking of yourselves as collectors. Interesting.

When I think of collectors, I think of people who know a good deal about the items collected. Seems more like a good thing.

[penwash]

I get the impression that y'all think a collection is an organized accumulation, or a regimented hoard, like the Air Force was a regimented bunch of people who wanted to be somewhere else. I also get the distinct impression that y'all think collections are a bad thing, because y'all are going to lengths to avoid thinking of yourselves as collectors. Interesting.

When I think of collectors, I think of people who know a good deal about the items collected. Seems more like a good thing.

Not all of us. But I do know some people who went through a lot of trouble to avoid being called "pen collector" as though it is something bad.

I think pen collecting is a fine hobby in itself.

[Scrawler]

I have accumulated a small collection of interesting antique pens. I have restored all of them and used every one at least once to get a feel for it. Even though I know I will not be using some of my pens again, I am preserving interesting conversation pieces that I know a lot about and can use to bore visitors. In general the only people I share my pens with are you lot in here. I have a glass cabinet beside me with 88 pens in and instead of using one of those, my daughter has graciously lent me her 1983 MB 146. My pens are only a collection in the sense that most of them represent specific periods in history and technological advances of the time.

[Jon Szanto]

My pens are only a collection in the sense that most of them represent specific periods in history and technological advances of the time.

That is a very significant statement. Frankly, I don't have the financial resources to build a collection that is both broad and deep. Keeping in mind my personal resources, as I've collected pens I've tried to include examples of pens that have meaning in some way, so that - as above - the various periods and innovations are represented, if only in a small (in number) fashion. I have some pens that I purchased knowing that they wouldn't see much, if any, use. I purchased them because the pen itself has importance, and I can study that pen and share it with friend in an educational manner. These are some of the attributes of a collection that appeal to me, above and beyond owning an assortment of pens.

[Pterodactylus]

Ok, if only technological advances count then the collections would be quite small and more or less end when Pelikan came up with the piston filler in the late 1920s.

Ok, add a cartridge pen and some technological novelties like the MB telescopic piston and the Sheaffer Snorkel in the 50s and you are done.

Nothing really new since many decades.

[grainweevil]

I get the impression that y'all think a collection is an organized accumulation, or a regimented hoard, like the Air Force was a regimented bunch of people who wanted to be somewhere else. I also get the distinct impression that y'all think collections are a bad thing, because y'all are going to lengths to avoid thinking of yourselves as collectors. Interesting.

When I think of collectors, I think of people who know a good deal about the items collected. Seems more like a good thing.

You might go back and read what I wrote a week ago; you're a bit late to the collector appreciation party in this thread!

But okay, say I can consider myself a collector, what am I collector of beyond "fountain pens"? I have modern ones and vintage. Ones like new, and ones that look like they've been in a fight whilst held in a bowl of something corrosive. Aluminium to BHR. Black through all the colours of the rainbow. Gold trim, palladium trim, no trim. Eyedroppers, lever fillers, button fillers, crescent fillers, squeeze fillers, vacuum fillers, piston fillers, and C/C. Some with their original nibs, some not. Gold nibs and steel nibs. Japanese UEF to 3.8 italic. Nibs I've ground, nibs someone else has ground, nibs with nothing but their modern factory blobs. Flex nibs to manifolds. Slip caps, click caps, screw caps, no caps, and that funny magnetic closure thing. Clips, clipless, and various ones with tails. School pens to luxury pens. British, German, Italian, American, French, Chinese, Japanese, et al. As to makes, well... Aurora to Arnold, Baoer to Burnham, Camlin to Conway Stewart, Delta to Dollar, Edison to Esterbrook (with and without Relief), and so forth.

The only thing they have in common is I've written with them all.

[catbert]

I get the impression that y'all think a collection is an organized accumulation, or a regimented hoard, like the Air Force was a regimented bunch of people who wanted to be somewhere else. I also get the distinct impression that y'all think collections are a bad thing, because y'all are going to lengths to avoid thinking of yourselves as collectors. Interesting.

When I think of collectors, I think of people who know a good deal about the items collected. Seems more like a good thing.

I don’t think collections or collectors are a bad thing. (Also not one of those people in the other place who says ‘c-worder’.) I do think my hoard fails to reach the standard of a collection except in the broadest sense that it is a pile of similar stuff.

To me, a collection has un underlying intelligence and intent beyond utility and aesthetics. If not, my shoes and kitchen implements would be collections not assemblages.

As (if?) I learn more and acquire more and better pens, I may be able to call some parts of my accumulation a collection and myself a collector. In some ways I aspire to that level of specialization and discernment.

And if not, I still have a bunch of pens I like.