Introduction |
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I have been a fan of the Pilot Capless/Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pen since I bought my first Vanishing Point 11 years ago. Nine years ago I started collecting the early Vanishing Point and Pilot Capless (the predecessor to the Vanishing Point) pens, and I started to keep a file of all the information I found on these great writing instruments. |
At the Pilot Namiki Capless/Vanishing Point History Page you will find historical information on the fountain pens gleaned from my files and collection, and from the many VP fans that have shared their information with me. This is a work in progress, and I don’t claim to be an expert in this line of fountain pens. I am just a fan who has an interest in its history, would like to acquire more information about these fountain pens, and share this information with those who are interested. |
One of my hopes in making this information available on the Internet is to find other fans of these fountain pens who would be willing to contribute pictures, scans or photocopies of pens, catalogs, ads, pamphlets, documents, etc, to this Capless/Vanishing Point compendium. | |||
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Please e-mail me if you have any questions or information to share at carmen@carmenriverapens.com |
Click the links to view Pilot Capless/Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pen ink filling instructions. |
Ink Cartridge
(Large Document - English & Japanese) |
Press-Plate (Squeeze) Converter and Twist Converter |
Twist
Converter with Ink Bottle |
What's New (December 2012) I am working on a major update of my Web site. I just listed a number of Pilot Vanishing Point fountain pens for sale, as well as other Pilot/Namiki pens, and will update the Vanishing Point history page very soon.I am now set up on Twitter and I have a Facebook fan page. What I especially love about Facebook is the ability of fans to upload pictures to a special photo album on my page called Fan Photos. So I have decided that I would like to make this album a photo/scan repository of all things Capless/Vanishing Point. I want to encourage all of you who have Capless/Vanishing Point pen pictures to share to please do so on my fan page. I would love to see pictures in the Fan Photos album of Capless/VP pens and the boxes/cases that they came in; pictures of pens broken down, close up, and x-rays of pens (I know VP x-rays are out there); scans of instruction manuals, advertisements, catalogs, brochures, price sheets, logos; a picture of a single pen, a picture of a whole collection of pens. I have some cool stuff that I have collected over the years and was never sure how to share them on my Web site. For example, I have this cool Pilot Capless banner from Japan with a 1964 Capless pen image silkscreened on it. I have scans of old advertisements and PDFs of Pilot price lists going back five or six years. I now have a good place to upload the images for others to see. A feature of the Fan Photos album is that it allows you to write a caption for each picture you upload giving you the chance to identify the pen(s) in the photo and write a little blurb about it. I am very excited about this project. The Fan Photos album has the potential to be a great repository of Capless/VP images where people can come to learn about these incredible pens. You do not have to be a fan to view the photo album, but if you want to upload pictures you need to sign up on Facebook and become a fan of my page (look for the Become a Fan button on the top of the page). Or, another option would be that you can e-mail the pictures to me and I can post them to the photo album. Fans can add their Capless/Vanishing Point pen pictures to Fan Photos by simply posting them to the Wall (type in the window that says "What's on your mind," click the photo icon, click Upload a Photo and follow the directions from there). Facebook will then automatically send the pictures to the album. Or fans can go directly to the Fan Photos upload page and add them there. Do not forget to write a caption. You can write captions right after you upload your pictures, or you can save the pictures and write a caption at another time. You get there by going to the Fan Photos album on the Photos page, click on the picture you just uploaded, click Edit Photo (bottom, right-side of page), write caption and save. I have added a few pictures to get things going. And I have lots more to add. E-mail me if you have any questions about uploading pictures. I am really looking forward to seeing how this project turns out. Carmen Rivera Pens Facebook Fan Photos Album Fan Photos Upload Page (For fans) Become a Fan on Facebook Follow us on Twitter (You do not need to be a member of Facebook or Twitter to view my pages) You can find this picture, and others like it, at Carmen Rivera Pens Facebook Fan Photos album. (November 3 2009) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE HISTORY PAGE I recently added the beautiful Vivid Red Vanishing Point pen to my collection. Vivid Red is a good description of the color. This VP is a numbered limited edition of 2009 pens and comes packaged with a beautiful red case that is similar to the case of the orange limited edition (Sept. 2007). The nib is rhodium-plated 18K gold. I have also added the "sparkly" red and blue Capless Decimos. These Decimos were only released in Japan in a limited edtion of 800 pens in each color. The trim is rhodium plated and the body is painted aluminum. The nibs on the Decimos are also rhodium-plated 18K gold. Below I have added a picture of all the red Capless/Vanishing Point pens in my collection. The No. 3 Pilot faceted VP is more brownish-burgundy and the No. 4 Namiki faceted VP is burgundy. No. 5 has an interesting cross-hatch-ish pattern and was sold only in Japan, and No. 7 & 9 are prototype-reds.
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From left to right: 1) August 1964 Capless; 2) October 1964 Capless; 3) June 1990 Vanishing Point (brownish-burgundy); 4) October (?) 1994 Vanishing Point (burgundy); 5) December 1999 Capless (cross-hatch pattern, released in Japan); 6) October 1999 Vanishing Point; 7) Prototype Vanishing Point (circa 1998) 8) May 2000 Vanishing Point; 9) Prototype Capless with chrome trim (circa 1999); 10) October 2003 Carbonesque Vanishing Point; 11) June 2007 Sesenta Capless (Japan); 12) Spring 2009 Decimo Capless (Japan); 13) August 2009 Vanishing Point. |
(May 22, 2009) Just got 3 prototype Vanishing Points: two lightish reds and one lightish blue. The three pens with the tags on the pocket clip in the picture below are the regular production, released in the U.S., pens. The red pen with no tag and the two with round stickers are the prototypes. I was told that the stickered VPs are trimmed with chrome rather than rhodium. Looking at them I can't tell the difference. All three of the prototypes have 14K gold nibs dated 1998 or 1999. Thought I saw a while back a picture of a lightish red with gold trim VP for sale in Japan, but I have never seen the lightish blue or red with chrome (or rhodium) trim.
(February 1, 2009) I have added four new beauties to the Pilot
Namiki Capless/Vanishing Point fountain pen history page. First is
the first model Pilot released after it stopped producing the still popular plastic-faceted barrel pen. This lacquered
enamled barrel with gold trim was first released in 1998 in Japan before
it was released to the American market. The Japanese version has 18K gold nibs, the American version
has 14K gold nibs. Finally, Pilot has released another yellow VP (September 2008). This yellow is NOT like the May 2003 limited edition Mandarin yellow Vanishing Point. This yellow is a little lighter than the "mustard" yellow VP that was released in December 2000 in Japan. The Mandarin yellow is more of a lemony yellow. The nib in the new yellow VP is 18K yellow gold, the Mandarin yellow has a 14K yellow gold nib. For those who are interested in seeing the different shades of yellow (alongside the orange) that Pilot offers in their Vanishing Points I have added a picture below to illustrate the differences. While I was at it, I decided to add VPs in the various grays, silvers, rhodium, and chrome that Pilot also released. Below the picture I listed the official colors of the fountain pens.
From left to right: 1) Gray (released in Japan); 2)
Slate Gray (the exact same color as the previous gray); (October 2007) ORANGE
CRUSH
ICED
PILOT (January 1, 2007)
PILOT IS TWISTING THINGS UP |
Click below for Pilot Capless/Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pen ink filling instructions. |
Ink Cartridge
(Large Document - English & Japanese) |
Press-Plate (Squeeze) Converter and Twist Converter |
Twist Converter with Ink Bottle |
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Updated: December13, 2009
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