Pen Model: Waterman's Ideal

Waterman's Ideal pens, from the late 1910s through the 1920s were among the first fountain pens that had mastered great writing ability with a reliable filling system that didn't leak.  Of black hard rubber and available in a wide range of sizes and styles, the Ideals were elegant pens that carried highly flexible nibs for business and social writing.  Today, their solid construction is manifest in their relatively high availability, and their highly flexible nibs are prized among those with calligraphic skill. Their submodel names were numbers, increasing with increasing girth, and other indications for shorter models and overlays. Today, the plain or chased 52 is the most common, with the higher numbers found in decreasing frequency.