Another eBay vintage find:

Dating from almost a century ago, this was in such good condition I could scarcely believe myself. The Peter Pan pens used to be worn as jewellery (thus the ringtop) and it was a challenge to fit a completely functioning pen into something unobtrusive and very very light.

Mine is among the smallest specimens ever made. At 59mm capped and 51mm uncapped, it’s really quite something to behold…

Unlike most vintage pens, it’s easily taken apart. Because of its size there are no levers or sacs to deal with; even so, it holds a maximum of 0.25ml of ink, and I usually only fill it to 0.2ml.

That nib contains the magic of the pen: a size 0, it is the smallest gold nib ever produced. Mine actually happens to be a stub that is also rather flexible — but of course there is no chance of the feed keeping up with a nib this size! You’d also run out of ink almost immediately if flex was involved.

I have been tempted on many occasions to modify the feed on this, except I risk damaging something older than my grandparents. Anyway, it’s a rather crisp stub, though not quite as unforgiving as an italic. There’s plenty of line variation, which is surprising for a piece of jewellery!

Later versions grew in size and eventually had lever fillers. Perhaps they even became large enough to use comfortably without posting… at any rate, since I don’t like to post my pens in case I scuff the barrel, I felt as if I were writing with a toothpick. This is a definite novelty, but such an unusual one!