Waterman's Ideal Fountain Pen

Here's another ad for Waterman's Ideal fountain pen touting what in 1911 was a big selling point, its portability. Imagine how freeing it must have felt to no longer have to dip a pen into an inkwell in order to write. Suddenly writing on the hotel veranda while enjoying the sea air was a real possibility, not a cumbersome contrivance that could only be managed at the risk of ruining everything you were wearing. 

The mention of the extra amount of letter writing that takes place over the summer struck me. Ah, for the time when correspondence wasn't a dashed off email, twitter hash-tag self centered, or fake-book account filled with selfies and skewed accounts of reality with a bias toward witty sarcasm. Sorry, just indulging my inner Luddite.