Collection vs. Assortment

When I started using a fountain pen, too many years ago to recount, I didn't appreciate that buying one implied a collection. But over the span of years I've amassed an assortment of fountain pens, technical pens, artist pens, ballpoints, felt tips, and dip pens.

Now in the twilight of my own collecting, I have learned more in the last months than in the previous decades about the value of one pen over the other, the pedigree of pens I've owned, lost, broken or mislaid, and how some of the fountain pens, in particular, I've bought write well, look fine, and have virtually no resale or collectible pedigree.

Whilst in a town, a country or even at home, I'd often pop into a shop, and find my eye drawn to the fountain pen displays. In Silicy, a land of beauty, I sought out every art store or stationer I could find. Somewhere in Catania or perhaps Palermo, I bought two red fountain pens. I didn't check to see if they had a name, or if they had a heritage. I just knew they were red, felt good in the palm of my hand, wrote crisply and were affordable even with the increased rate of exchange (2004) between the Euro and the dollar.

Now I am left with an embarrassment of riches that my children don't want, my grand-children are to young to use let alone appreciate, and a passion for tidying up my life.