A beautifully illustrated, well-researched presentation of the evolution of fountain pens, showing how political and social events influenced their designs, the trends in their evolution process, and competition, fights, and mergers among manufacturers. This guide shows more than 3000 fountain pens, in 606 full color photographs, with competing models side-by-side to reveal their similarities and differences. At the end of each chronological organized chapter, a timeline shows the main events in the world together with the models introduced by each manufacturer. Other books have addressed the history and development of fountain pens, typically, looking at the evolution of individual manufacturers. That approach, however, leaves out two important aspects: the interaction between manufacturers and influences world events had on their designs. The whole history of the fountain pen is told as a sequence of small stories about the main events. Many of the pens shown here have not previously been published in other books.